Crying ‘Whataboutism’ Doesn’t Make the Left’s Support for Rioting Go Away


“Whataboutism is the last refuge for someone who can’t admit they’re wrong,” says journalist Tod Perry, who demands that we “stop equating Trump’s Capitol insurrection to Black Lives Matter protests.” The Atlantic’s David A. Graham likewise declares that conservatives’ “complaints about double standards are mostly whataboutism.” Jeremy W. Peters of The New York Times scolded the right for responses that were “full of whataboutism.”

What’s going on here? The left has come to embrace whataboutism as an all-purpose shield against any attempt to put events in a social, moral and historical context.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “whataboutism” as “the practice of raising a supposedly analogous issue in response to a perceived hypocrisy or inconsistency.” The term came into use in the 20th century, often describing a Soviet rhetorical gambit where any criticism of the USSR’s rights record elicited an objection about the West’s sins.

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William Voegeli is senior editor of The Claremont Review of Books. Adapted from City Journal.

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