whataboutery
/wɒtəˈbaʊtəɹi/
whataboutery noun: protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one's opponent of similar or worse faults.
Noun
whataboutery (countable and uncountable, plural whatabouteries)
- Protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one's opponent of similar or worse faults.
- Criticism is stereotyped as 'civil servant bashing' or the weapon of whataboutery is unsheathed: official statements accelerate about inefficient private sector management.1983, Foras Forbartha, Towards a national strategy: issues and perspectives
- As the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, will know, we have in Northern Ireland what we have referred to over the years as "whataboutery". When one talks about the atrocities of the IRA, someone from the other side will say, "Ah, but what about?" I have lived with that for 30 years in Northern Ireland....1998 Gerry Fitt, House of Lords debates Vol.591 col.457 (29 June 1998)
- Synonyms:
- ad hominem, tu quoque, recrimination
- Protesting at inconsistency; refusing to act in one instance unless similar action is taken in other similar instances.
- They are skilled in whataboutery: the art of avoiding the issue.1984, Andrew Kakabadse, Suresh Mukhi, The Future of management education, Nichols, →ISBN, page 9
- As Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson writes, "War in Libya is justifiable only if we are going to hold compliant dictators to the same standard we set for defiant ones." This line of argument has surfaced in nearly every debate about Western military intervention since the end of the Cold...2011 Romesh Ratnesar "In Defense of Inconsistency" Time (US edition) 28 March 2011
Examples of whataboutery in a sentence
- As the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, will know, we have in Northern Ireland what we have referred to over the years as "whataboutery".1998 Gerry Fitt, House of Lords debates Vol.591 col.457 (29 June 1998)
- In terms of dealing with the past, whataboutery is premised on the denial of the truths of the 'other' as a way to highlight the innocence and moral integrity of one's own experiences.2014, Cheryl Lawther, Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past, →ISBN:
- We know a lot of people around us who would resort to whataboutery or hypocrisy when it is upon them to take a stand.2017 December 28, Trends Desk, “Twitter users get the hashtag #NowThatsADoubleStandard trending for all the right reasons”, in The Indian...
- The British even have a term for it: whataboutery.2011 Romesh Ratnesar "In Defense of Inconsistency" Time (US edition) 28 March 2011
Synonyms of whataboutery
Forms of whataboutery
| plural | whatabouteries |
|---|
Origin of whataboutery
From what about + -ery. Originally used in describing political discourse during the Northern Ireland troubles, it has also found use in discussions of the origins of other prolonged sectarian conflicts, such as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Questions about whataboutery
- What does whataboutery mean?
- Whataboutery means protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one's opponent of similar or worse faults.
- How do you use whataboutery in a sentence?
- As the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, will know, we have in Northern Ireland what we have referred to over the years as "whataboutery".
- What part of speech is whataboutery?
- Whataboutery is a noun.
- How do you pronounce whataboutery?
- Whataboutery is pronounced /wɒtəˈbaʊtəɹi/.
- What is the plural of whataboutery?
- The plural of whataboutery is whatabouteries.
Words near whataboutery in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whataboutery (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “whataboutery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whataboutery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.