18 May 2019

whataboutism

[hwuht-uh-bou-tiz-uhm, wuht‐, hwot‐, wot‐]

noun

a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless:

Excusing your mistakes with whataboutism is not the same as defending your record.

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NEARBY WORDS

what’ve, what-if, what-you-may-call-it, whata, whataboutery, whatchamacallit, whate’er, whatever, whatevs, whatnot

ORIGIN OF WHATABOUTISM

First recorded in 2000–05; from the phrase what about? + -ism

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Today’s quote

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

– Frederick Douglass

On this day

18 May – World Whiskey Day (3rd Saturday in March)

18 May 1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Halley’s Comet.

18 May 1980 – Volcanic eruption from Mt St Helens in Washington State, USA, killing 57 people.

18 May 1989 – Over 1,000,000 people march in Beijing, demanding democracy. The Chinese government violently suppressed the protests, bringing them to an end on 4 June 1989 following the massacre of more than 10,000 protestors in Tiananmen Square.