whataboutism

[hwuht-uh-bou-tiz-uhm, wuht‐, hwot‐, wot‐]

noun

1. a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless.

   Excusing your mistakes with whataboutism is not the same as defending your record.

Word History and Origins

Origin of whataboutism¹

First recorded in 1975–80; from the phrase what about? + -ism ( def. )

Example Sentences

Now allow me to engage in a bit of whataboutism, on the grounds that you can usefully gauge a movement’s health by comparing it to its counterpart.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Trumpian rhetoric relies on a rotating arsenal of cognitive traps: Whataboutism to deflect, false equivalence to confuse, red herrings to distract and gaslighting to exhaust.

Read more on Salon

Every time they are confronted with evidence of some new infamy by their president, many on the right will choose to avoid the unrewarding path of moral consistency and opt instead for the tactics of least resistance: misdirection, “whataboutism,” or simply reaching for the blinders.

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Vance—has so far followed a familiar script: peddling whataboutism, denying, downplaying, or shifting blame.

Read more on Slate

He noted that the vice president had once defended him when he was banned on X. “Now he’s defending these young Republicans, and I never thought I’d see it ever, but Republicans are finally learning to play the whataboutism game, and that’s overdue,” Fuentes said.

Read more on Slate