July 2, 2021
My long time readers (those going back 10-years-or-more) may have been disappointed by my subject matter during the Trump Years — unfortunately — I couldn\’t endure him (or his sycophants) and felt the need to comment on every destructive aspect of his un-presidency.
However, I feel myself getting sober after being drunk on Trump and suffering severe Trump hangovers for the past 5 years. I think I will be able to pursue other subjects in the weeks, months and years to come.
For instance, my last post was an open letter to Trevor Noah! This posting will have a look at whataboutism — which I didn\’t know I practiced as a mistake-prone little leaguer; or, in my intimate relationships.
This \”ism\” is what our journalistic pundits were accusing Putin of during his summit with Sleepy Joe.
The definition of whataboutism (also known as whataboutery), is a variant of the tu quoquelogical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent\’s position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument; and/or, the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation or raising a different issue.
How is whataboutism a logical fallacy or a negative engagement technique? Sounds to me like people who invoke whataboutism are merely defending themselves against a perceived attack…?
Here is the definition of a fallacy: A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or \”wrong moves\” in the construction of an argument. A fallacious argument may be deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is. Some fallacies are committed intentionally to manipulate or persuade by deception, while others are committed unintentionally due to carelessness or ignorance.
Ahhhh…there we have it — whataboutisms seem to be generated amidst a conflicted situation where both parties want to be right and make the other wrong.
For those of us who have ever had a spat with our significant other or with the neighborhood kids — whataboutism sounds like an ideal defensive measure if someone is accusing you of something-or-another and attempting to take([and maintain) a moral high ground — accompanied by a pejorative or two.
Looks like we\’ll need another definition: A pejorative or \”slur\” — is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something.
In other words — US tends to criticize anything US wants to about another country\’s practices and behaviors (elections immediately come to mind). But if another country (Putin and Russia in this case) dares to respond to US criticism by suggesting that we take the log out of our own eyes — we call it whataboutism (because they have refused to roll over for US). Even former president Trump has suggested that US has plenty of blood on our hands.
So, who is the real hypocrite? The party that is doing the accusing — or the party that is doing the whatabouting?? The latter sounds much more Jesus-like, while the former sounds more like the Saducees and Pharisees.
All, I know — is that whatabouting doesn\’t work very well when you are up against an intractable force. It was very difficult for this 9-year-old to admit that covering 2nd base when the ball was hit to my short stop position was pretty stupid — and I couldn\’t whatabout my way out of that…just like I\’ve never been able to whatabout my way out of any argument with my 2 exes or Giti…