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Lmaooo what a stupid thing for an American president to say
I think that’s a good, fair way of treating arms dealers. Let’s apply that to everyone then yeah?
Lets apply that to everyone.
So they’ll sue gun shops owners when there’s a mass-killing going on, right?
Do you sue car dealerships when a drunk driver kills someone?
Not dealerships, but 43 US states plus DC, have dram shop laws that allow a drunk driver to sue the establishment that overserved.
That is horseahit
Q Mr. President, do you hold Iran responsible for the death of those three Americans?
THE PRESIDENT: I do hold respon- — them responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.
Cool. Now do Israel.
Pot, kettle, eejit !! 🤡
Now do Israel
Israel: Now do Hamas.
Whataboutism is stupid. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
misleading headlines are misleading:
Q But directly responsible?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’ll have that discussion.
Funny how that works.
Why did no one ask a follow-up question about that remark?
I have a feeling Russia will use this… Expect them quoting Biden any time soon.
Whataboutism or whataboutery (as in “what about…?”) is a pejorative for the strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of a defense of the original accusation. … Leonid Bershidsky called whataboutism a “Russian tradition”, while The New Yorker described the technique as “a strategy of false moral equivalences”. Julia Ioffe called whataboutism a “sacred Russian tactic”, and compared it to accusing the pot of calling the kettle black. …
Citations Needed podcast: Whataboutism - The Media’s Favorite Rhetorical Shield Against Criticism of US Policy
Since the beginning of what’s generally called ‘RussiaGate’ three years ago, pundits, media outlets, even comedians have all become insta-experts on supposed Russian propaganda techniques. The most cunning of these tricks, we are told, is that of “whataboutism” – a devious Soviet tactic of deflecting criticism by pointing out the accusers’ hypocrisy and inconsistencies. The tu quoque - or, “you, also” - fallacy, but with a unique Slavic flavor of nihilism, used by Trump and leftists alike in an effort to change the subject and focus on the faults of the United States rather than the crimes of Official State Enemies.
But what if “whataboutism” isn’t describing a propaganda technique, but in fact is one itself: a zombie phrase that’s seeped into everyday liberal discourse that – while perhaps useful in the abstract - has manifestly turned any appeal to moral consistency into a cunning Russian psyop. From its origins in the Cold War as a means of deflecting and apologizing for Jim Crow to its braindead contemporary usage as a way of not engaging any criticism of the United States as the supposed arbiter of human rights, the term “whataboutism” has become a term that - 100 percent of the time - is simply used to defend and legitimizing American empire’s moral narratives.
Ben Burgis @ Current Affairs: Is “Whataboutism” Always a Bad Thing?
Discussing the crimes of our own country as well as the crimes of others is not always an effort to downplay other countries’ crimes—it can be a test of whether we are serious about our principles.
Is whataboutism acceptable, when Israel defends its actions in Gaza by saying “What about Hamas crimes?” Is saying ‘what about Hamas’ a valid defense against allegations of war crimes in Gaza? Should Israel be allowed to commit war crimes in Gaza because Russia is committing or facilitating war crimes in Sudan and Ukraine? “We bombed a hospital, but what about Russia! What about Assad?”
Personally, I think what Israel is doing in Gaza is no less bad, because the Russians are doing similar things in Ukraine, or because Assad bombed hospitals.
You see, the worst thing about what’s happening in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Xinjiang, wherever… it’s not the hypocrisy. It’s the war crimes.
Whataboutism isn’t cunning. It’s stupid and only useful idiots and morons think otherwise.
As both pieces explain, it has its uses and its abuses.