It worked. Later, China began compiling its own files on America’s human rights abuses annually and usually published them immediately after the American report was published. You know what, it worked. Nowadays, this topic is much less talked about in the news.
What we learn from whataboutism is, first, no one is perfect, which is, well, fair enough. Second, as a propaganda tactic, it is notorious, because it doesn’t address the problem in question. Politically, it is merely a propaganda tactic.
Or PR tactic. In America, they say public relations instead of propaganda, because the latter had long acquired a notorious reputation.
Now, let’s read a few media examples of “What about?” or whataboutism to drive the lessons home:
1. Two days ago Roger Cohen wrote the following in the New York Times:
The magnetism of Silicon Valley may suggest that the United States, a young nation still, is Rome at the height of its power. American soft power is alive and well. America’s capacity for reinvention, its looming self-sufficiency in energy, its good demographics and, not least, its hold on the world’s imagination, all suggest vigor.
Cohen goes on to fret about the waning of U.S. geopolitical power, but let’s stay on the soft power side of things. The events in Ferguson, Mo., have given rise to a new wave of “whataboutism,” a term coined by the Economist to describe Russia’s tendency to respond to criticisms of its policies with tu quoque replies of “what about Iraq?” or “what about race relations in America?”
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