Exposing Putin's Lies: His Comrades, Apologists, & Trolls, And His War in Ukraine by David Lucky

Author:David Lucky [Lucky, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

7 WHATABOUTISM

Whataboutism is a viral tactic today with most Russian apologists and Russian Trolls alike. This tactic prevents them from losing arguments with most people and allows them to keep pushing their Propaganda and falsehoods. Only those who are aware of the tactic can deal with it successfully.

According to the dictionary, "whataboutism" is "the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter-accusation or raising a different issue."

By using the whataboutism technique and tactic, the propagandist never has to answer any of the hard questions and can go on to continue spreading their false Propaganda. Any time the propagandist does not have a good answer, they ask you an irrelevant question about another topic and divert the discussion into a different matter. This way, the relevant questions and issues never get resolved.[63]

One of the favorite argumentative tactics of Russian apologists, and many others, is "whataboutism." This tactic became a favorite of communists in the early days of the Soviet Union. Whenever someone would point out one of the many problems with communism, their reply was invariably something like, "What about the problems with capitalism?" The association of whataboutism with the Soviet Union began during the Cold War. As the West criticized the regimes of Josef Stalin and his successors for human rights atrocities, the Soviet propaganda machine would be ready with a comeback alleging atrocities of equal reprehensibility for which the West was guilty. Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and political activist, discussed the whataboutism techniques in his famous book "Winter is coming." He called the method a form of "Soviet Propaganda” and a way for Russian bureaucrats to respond to criticisms of Soviet massacres, forced deportations, and gulags." Kasparov was a critic of the Putin regime, and he left Russia in 2013 after fearing for his safety. Other authors have also referred to it as a "sacred Russian tactic."[64]

Even though the tactic of whataboutism is viral these days with apologists and propagandists, the tactic is a well-known Logical Fallacy. Whataboutism is a logical fallacy because the person using it tries to steer the attention away from the issue at hand while simultaneously making some counteraccusation. Experts in the field of logic say whataboutism is a form of the "tu quoque fallacy" whereby a person's claim is discredited by alleged hypocrisy from the person with whom they are arguing.

When arguing with someone, you can become unaware that they are using the logical fallacy of whataboutism. Many people unaware of the tactic can become confused and taken in by such tactics, even though they are on the right side of the issue. It is very important to keep your eyes open for the whataboutism tactic.

If you have had arguments or discussions with people about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then more than likely, you have already encountered a whataboutism argument. Sometimes, they are very subtle, take different forms, and are not so easy to catch. It is essential to be aware of this common logical fallacy so you do not fall into their trap.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.