whataboutery

noun

what·about·ery ˌ(h)wä-tə-ˈbau̇-tə-rē

ˌ(h)wə-

plural whatabouteries

chiefly British

: whataboutism

… blame can be accepted without some finger-pointing immediately following it but, especially online, whataboutery still abounds.—

Liam Bryce

"Whataboutery" is deployed by people who are themselves accused of a charge, and who wish to distract rather than defend themselves—it is a misdirection technique of the guilty.—

Kate Maltby

… there was always the lurking suspicion that the promised new approach could not be sustained and that old whatabouteries would inevitably surface …—

Belfast Telegraph Online

Examples of whataboutery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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For Republicans to make this case is not another tedious and empty example in political whataboutery—the endless process of excusing your own faults by pointing to those of others. —

Gerard Baker, WSJ, 7 Nov. 2022 America's 2003 invasion of Iraq and the disaster that followed was a gift Putin used to turn any debate into another round of exhausting whataboutery, which in turn made Putin a hero for the European far-left. —

Natalia Antelava, CNN, 1 Mar. 2022 The synonymous term whataboutery is more common in British English. —

Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY, 28 Oct. 2021 For those steeped in such diplomatic talks, Putin’s whataboutery was entirely predictable. —

Philip Elliott, Time, 17 June 2021 This is where a flimsy exercise in whataboutery as a defence against structural sexism and misogyny comes into play: the hashtag #notallmen. —

Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, 23 Apr. 2021