Meaning
The practice of deflecting criticism by pointing at someone else's wrongdoing ('what about...?') instead of addressing the accusation. It answers a charge with a counter-charge, implying that the critic has no standing to complain rather than defending the conduct in question. Almost always pejorative; used to call out evasion rather than genuine comparative context. Regional use: General English.
Origin
According to lexicographer Ben Zimmer, the pattern was first named in Northern Ireland during the Troubles: a 1974 letter to The Irish Times by teacher Sean O'Conaill complained about 'the Whatabouts' defending the IRA, and days later columnist John Healy used the variant 'whataboutery' in the same paper. The word became attached to Soviet propaganda when Australian journalist Michael Barnard applied it to Soviet deflection in The Age in 1978; dictionary.com dates the -ism form to 1975-80, Zimmer notes a 1993 appearance in a book by Tony Parker, and Oxford dates it to the 1990s. British journalist Edward Lucas revived and popularised it with a 2007 blog post and a January 2008 Economist article titled 'Whataboutism', after which it spread widely in English-language media; Merriam-Webster reports sharply increased lookups in the mid-2010s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- whataboutery
- whatabouting
- whataboutist
Usage Examples
- Asked about the poisoning scandal, the spokesman replied with whataboutism about foreign chemical accidents.
- You can't answer every criticism of the plan with whataboutery about the previous administration.
- 'But what about their roads?' is not a defence of our road policy; it is just whataboutism.