whataboutism

From what about +‎ -ism. First use appears c. 1978 in The Guardian.

• IPA^(key): /ˌwə.təˈbaʊ.tɪ.zəm/
• Rhymes: -aʊtɪzəm
• Hyphenation: what‧about‧ism

whataboutism (countable and uncountable, plural whataboutisms)

1. (rhetoric) A logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising corresponding criticisms of the opposite side.

   Synonyms: tu quoque, (UK) whataboutery

   • 1994, Joe Austin, “The obdurate and the obstinate”, in Tony Parker, editors, May the Lord in His Mercy be Kind to Belfast, Henry Holt & Co, →ISBN, page 136:

     And I'd no time at all for 'What aboutism' - you know, people who said 'Yes, but what about what's been done to us? ... That had nothing to do with it, and if you got into it you were defending the indefensible.

   • 2008 January 31, Edward Lucas, “Whataboutism - Come again, Comrade?”, in The Economist‎^[1], London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed 'whataboutism'.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • 2008 December 11, Staff writer, “The West is in danger of losing its moral authority”, in European Voice‎^[2], retrieved 3 July 2017:

     'Whataboutism' was a favourite tactic of Soviet propagandists during the old Cold War. Any criticism of the Soviet Union’s internal aggression or external repression was met with a 'what about?' some crime of the West, from slavery to the Monroe doctrine.

   • 2016 August 24, Jill Dougherty, “Olympic doping ban unleashes fury in Moscow”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     There's another attitude ... that many Russians seem to share, what used to be called in the Soviet Union 'whataboutism,' in other words, 'who are you to call the kettle black?'

   • 2017, Andreas Umland, “The Ukrainian Government's Memory Institute Against the West”, in IndraStra Global‎^[4], volume 3, number 3, →ISSN, retrieved 4 July 2017, page 7:

     what was known during Soviet times, as 'whataboutism'

   • 2017 March 17, Danielle Kurtzleben, “Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism”, in NPR‎^[5], retrieved 20 May 2017:

     This particular brand of changing the subject is called 'whataboutism' — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia.

• “whataboutism”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “whataboutism”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Stevenson, Angus, editor (2010), “whataboutism”, in Oxford Dictionary of English: Third Edition‎^[6], Oxford University Press, →ISBN, retrieved 23 July 2017: “Origin - 1990s: from the way in which counter-accusations may take the form of questions introduced by 'What about —?'”
• “whataboutism”, in Oxford Living Dictionary (Oxford Dictionaries)‎^[7], Oxford University Press, 2017, archived from the original on 9 March 2017: “Origin - 1990s: from the way in which counter-accusations may take the form of questions introduced by ‘What about —?’.”

• whataboutism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia