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Whataboutism / Tu Quoque

"Sure, but what about what they did?" And just like that, nobody is accountable for anything.

Whataboutism is the move of deflecting criticism by pointing to someone else's wrongdoing. It doesn't deny the original charge — it just changes the subject. "Our government spies on citizens." "Well, their government does it too." The accusation stands unaddressed, but the conversation has already moved somewhere else. Both sides walk away unchallenged.

This was a signature tactic of Soviet propaganda — whenever Western critics raised human rights concerns, the response was to point at racism in America. The criticism of America was often valid. But that wasn't the point. The point was to neutralise accountability by making everything relative. If everyone is guilty, no one needs to answer for anything specific.

The trick works because it appeals to your sense of fairness. It feels hypocritical to criticise one side while ignoring the other. And sometimes it genuinely is hypocritical. But whataboutism exploits that instinct to prevent any side from ever being held to account. It turns every conversation into a stalemate of mutual finger-pointing where nothing gets resolved and nothing gets better.

The honest response to "what about them?" is straightforward: "We can talk about that too. But right now we're talking about this." Accountability isn't a zero-sum game. You can hold more than one party responsible at a time.

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