whataboutism
Syllables: what·about·ism/ˌwə.təˈbaʊ.tɪ.zəm/
whataboutism noun: a logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising unrelated criticisms of the opposite side.
Noun
whataboutism (countable and uncountable, plural whataboutisms)
- A logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising unrelated criticisms of the opposite side.
- And I'd no time at all for 'What aboutism' - you know, people who said 'Yes, but what about what's been done to us? ... That had nothing to do with it, and if you got into it you were defending the indefensible.1994, Joe Austin, “The obdurate and the obstinate”, in Tony Parker, editors, May the Lord in His Mercy be Kind to Belfast, Henry Holt & Co, →ISBN, page 136
- Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed 'whataboutism'.2008 January 31, Edward Lucas, “Whataboutism - Come again, Comrade?”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- tu quoque, whataboutery
whataboutism meaning in Indonesian and Persian
whataboutism in Indonesian
- propaganda technique
- whataboutisme
whataboutism in Persian
- propaganda technique
- پسچهایسم
Examples of whataboutism in a sentence
- 'Whataboutism' was a favourite tactic of Soviet propagandists during the old Cold War.2008 December 11, Staff writer, “The West is in danger of losing its moral authority”, in European Voice, retrieved 03 Jul 2017:
- There's another attitude ... that many Russians seem to share, what used to be called in the Soviet Union 'whataboutism,' in other words, 'who are you to call the kettle black?'2016 August 24, Jill Dougherty, “Olympic doping ban unleashes fury in Moscow”, in CNN:
- what was known during Soviet times, as 'whataboutism'2017, Andreas Umland, “The Ukrainian Government's Memory Institute Against the West”, in IndraStra Global, volume 3, number 3, →ISSN...
- This particular brand of changing the subject is called 'whataboutism' — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia.2017 March 17, Danielle Kurtzleben, “Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism”, in NPR, retrieved 20 May...
Synonyms of whataboutism
Forms of whataboutism
| plural | whataboutisms |
|---|
Origin of whataboutism
From what about + -ism. First use appears c. 1978 in The Guardian.
Words formed from whataboutism
Questions about whataboutism
- What does whataboutism mean?
- Whataboutism means a logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising unrelated criticisms of the opposite side.
- What is whataboutism in Indonesian?
- Whataboutism in Indonesian is whataboutisme. See Whataboutism meaning in Indonesian.
- How do you use whataboutism in a sentence?
- 'Whataboutism' was a favourite tactic of Soviet propagandists during the old Cold War.
- What part of speech is whataboutism?
- Whataboutism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce whataboutism?
- Whataboutism is pronounced /ˌwə.təˈbaʊ.tɪ.zəm/.
- What is the plural of whataboutism?
- The plural of whataboutism is whataboutisms.
Words near whataboutism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whataboutism (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whataboutism.wav.
Cite this entry: “whataboutism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whataboutism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.