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Video: A guide to Russian propaganda — Whataboutism (2016).

Whataboutism is a propaganda technique used by the Soviet Union in its dealings with the Western world, and subsequently used as a form of propaganda in post-Soviet Russia.[1][2][3] When Cold War criticisms were levelled at the Soviet Union, the response would be "What about..." followed by the naming of an event in the Western world.[4][5][6] It represents a case of tu quoque (appeal to hypocrisy), a formal fallacy that attempts to discredit the opponent's position by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with that position, without directly refuting or disproving the opponent's initial argument.[7][8][9]

During the Cold War, Western world officials responding to Soviet propaganda usage of the tactic used the term whataboutism to refer to the Soviet strategy.[4][10][11] The tactic saw a resurgence in post-Soviet Russia in relation to a number of human rights violations and other criticisms expressed to the Russian government.[4][12][13] The tactic received new attention during the annexation of Crimea by Russia and 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[14][15] Usage of the tactic extended to Russian leader Vladimir Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and by Putin himself.[16][17][18] National Public Radio, USA Today, and Foreign Policy have pointed out similarities between the Soviet Union tactic and usage of similar rhetorical style by Donald Trump.[1][19][20]

The Guardian called whataboutism as used in Russia, "practically a national ideology".[21] Julia Ioffe wrote that "Anyone who has ever studied the Soviet Union" was aware of the tactic.[22] Gary Kasparov called it a form of "Soviet propaganda".[3] The Moscow Times observed it was a ubiquitous Soviet tactic and that "Any student of Soviet history" would recognize its use.[23] Leonid Bershidsky wrote for Bloomberg News and called it a "Russian tradition".[24] The New Yorker called whataboutism, "a strategy of false moral equivalences".[25] Jill Dougherty called whataboutism a "sacred Russian tactic".[26][27] Foreign Policy called Russian whataboutism "part of the national psyche".[28]

History

Soviet Union origins

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During the Cold War, Western world officials responding to Soviet Union propaganda usage of the tactic used the term whataboutism to refer to the Soviet strategy.[4][10][11] Throughout the time period of the Soviet Union, the word whataboutism came to be known to refer to the tactic as used by Soviet Union officials.[29][30][31] Whataboutism usage grew during the reign of the Soviet Union until it became a habitual practice by members of the government.[32] Soviet Union media sources that took up the practice of whataboutism did so at the expense of journalistic neutrality, with the ultimate goal of tarnishing the reputation of American policies.[33] Soviet Union officials made increased use of the tactic during the latter portion of the 1940s as a way to manipulate attention away from criticism.[34]

One of the earliest uses of the technique was in 1947 after William Averell Harriman criticized "Soviet imperialism" in a speech.[35] A response in Pravda by Ilya Ehrenburg criticized the United States' laws and policies regarding race and minorities and pointed out that Soviet consideration of them as "insulting to human dignity" was not being used as an excuse to start a war.[35] Whataboutism as a Soviet public relations tactic saw greater usage during the Cold War.[36][37][38]

Throughout the Cold War, the whataboutism tactic was primarily utilized by media representatives speaking on behalf of the Soviet Union.[39][40][41] The rationale behind the tactic's use by the Soviet Union was to accuse critics of hypocrisy and deflect attention away from the original criticism itself.[42] The term whataboutism was known locally within the Soviet Union as a way to reduce attention from criticisms directed at Moscow.[43] The tactic became ubiquitous in the Soviet Union, and whataboutism became known as a Soviet cliché.[44] At the end of the Cold War, the usage of the tactic began dying out, at the same time period as civil rights reforms in the U.S.[23]

Resurgence in post-Soviet Russia

The tactic saw a resurgence in post-Soviet Russia in relation to a number of human rights violations and other criticisms expressed to the Russian government.[4][12][13] Whataboutism became a favorite tactic of the Moscow Kremlin.[45][46] Soviet tactics including disinformation and active measures, were combined with whataboutism in Russian public relations strategies.[47][48][49] Whataboutism was used as a form of Russian propaganda with the larger goal of obfuscating the truth about criticism of Kremlin activities.[50] The hope is to degrade the level of discourse from rational criticism of Russia to petty bickering.[51] Leaders within the Russian political structure adopted the Soviet-era practice of whataboutism, and chose to avoid internal reflection of external criticism, in favor of emphasizing wrongdoing by different sovereign states.[52] In addition to whataboutism, Russian leaders would assert their actions had been the result of provocation from Western countries, and attempted to distort the veracity about media reporting.[53]

Although the use of whataboutism was not restricted to any particular race or belief system, according to The Economist, Russians often overused the tactic.[4] Whataboutism use by the Russian government grew under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.[54] Jake Sullivan of Foreign Policy wrote that "Putin is an especially skillful practitioner" of the technique.[20] Business Insider echoed this assessment, writing, "Putin's near-default response to criticism of how he runs Russia is whataboutism".[55] Edward Lucas of The Economist said that this tactic was observed in the politics of modern Russia, and that this was evidence of a resurgence of Cold War and Soviet-era mentality within Russia's leadership.[4]

The Economist recommended two methods of properly countering Whataboutism: The first is to "use points made by Russian leaders themselves" so that they cannot be applied to a Western nation and the second method is for Western nations to apply more self-criticism to its own media and government.[4] Euromaidan Press discussed the strategy, in a feature on whataboutism for its second part of a three part educational series on Russian propaganda.[56][57] The educational series described whataboutism as an intentional distraction away from serious criticism of Russia.[56][57] The instructional piece advised subjects of whataboutism to avoid the temptation to respond to the tactic and resist emotional manipulation.[56][57]

Increased use after Russian annexation of Crimea

The tactic received new attention during the annexation of Crimea by Russia and 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[14][15][57] It was used in reference to Azerbaijan, which responded to criticism of its human rights record by holding parliamentary hearings on issues in the United States.[58] Simultaneously, Azerbaijan supporting Internet trolls used the same tactic to draw attention away from criticism of the country.[59] The Guardian writer Miriam Elder commented that Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov used the tactic and that most criticisms on human rights violations had gone unanswered. Peskov responded to Elder's article on the difficulty of dry-cleaning in Moscow with a whataboutism on the difficulty Russians experience in obtaining a visa to the United Kingdom.[16] Peskov used the whataboutism tactic the same year in a letter written to the Financial Times.[17] Neil Buckley wrote for the Financial Times, "As several former Soviet republics drift back towards authoritarian ways, whataboutism is making a comeback."[17] In July 2012, RIA Novosti columnist Konstantin von Eggert wrote an article about the use of whataboutism in relation to Russian and American support for different governments in the Middle East.[60] Jill Dougherty noted in 2014 that the tactic was a "a time-worn propaganda technique used by the Soviet government" which had migrated to see use by the Russian propaganda structure Russia Today.[61][62] This assessment about Russia Today as engaging in whataboutism was echoed by the Financial Times and Bloomberg News.[63] The Washington Post observed in 2016 that media outlets of Russia had become "famous" for their use of the whataboutism tactic.[64] The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Putin himself used the tactic, in a 2017 interview with NBC News journalist Megyn Kelly.[18]

Donald Trump usage

U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of employing whataboutism in response to criticism leveled at him, his policies, or his support of controversial global leaders.[1][65][66] When asked to defend his behavior or accusations of wrongdoing, Trump has frequently shifted the topic to Democratic Party figures, such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.[20][19] When Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called Russian President Vladimir Putin a killer, Trump responded by saying that the US government was also guilty of killing people.[20] During the 2016 presidential election, Trump was accused of using the technique to defend his support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been accused of human rights violations. When The New York Times asked about Erdoğan's treatment of journalists, teachers, and dissenters, Trump replied, "When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don't think we're a very good messenger."[67] Gary Kasparov commented to Columbia Journalism Review of Trump's embrace of the whataboutism Soviet tactic: "Moral relativism, 'whataboutism,' has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal regimes. For a US president to employ it against his own country is tragic. Trump repeating Putin’s words—and nearly Stalin’s—by calling the press the enemy of the people, has repercussions around the world."[68]

Analysis

Juhan Kivirähk, and colleagues wrote about whataboutism in a 2010 monograph analyzing Russian foreign policy, and described the strategy's use by Russian government sources as evolved from original Soviet intelligence use as a form of "polittechnological" tactic.[69] The Guardian in 2013 described whataboutism as practiced in Russia as "practically a national ideology" in the country.[21] National security journalist Julia Ioffe commented in a 2014 article, "Anyone who has ever studied the Soviet Union knows about a phenomenon called 'whataboutism.'"[22] Ioffe cited the "And you are lynching negroes" Soviet response to criticism as a "classic" form of the whataboutism tactic.[22] She said that Russia Today was "an institution that is dedicated solely to the task of whataboutism."[22] Ioffe concluded whataboutism was a "sacred Russian tactic".[26][27] Garry Kasparov discussed the Soviet tactic in his book Winter Is Coming, calling it a form of "Soviet propaganda" where, "Soviet leaders would respond to criticism of Soviet massacres, forced deportations, and gulags", with a retort of how the U.S. had dealt with minorities themselves.[3] Mark Adomanis commented for The Moscow Times in 2015, "Whataboutism was employed by the Communist Party with such frequency and shamelessness that a sort of pseudo mythology grew up around it. Any student of Soviet history will recognize parts of the whataboutist cannon."[23]

Writing in 2016 for Bloomberg News journalist Leonid Bershidsky called whataboutism a "Russian tradition".[24] Tuomas Forsberg and Hiski Haukkala in their book The European Union and Russia characterized the tactic of whataboutism as an "old Soviet practice of ... responding to concerns by pointing to problems elsewhere", and they observed the strategy, "has been gaining in prominence in the Russian attempts at deflecting Western criticism".[70] Writing in her book, Security Threats and Public Perception, author Elizaveta Gaufman called the whataboutism tactic, "A Soviet/Russian spin on liberal anti-Americanism", and compared it to the "And you are lynching negroes" Soviet rejoinder.[71] James Palmer of Foreign Policy supported this assessment.[72] Daphne Skillen discussed the whataboutism tactic in her book, Freedom of Speech in Russia: Politics and Media from Gorbachev to Putin, identifying it as a "Soviet propagandist's technique" and "a common Soviet-era defence".[2] Jill Dougherty wrote in a piece for CNN comparing the technique to The pot calling the kettle black.[11]

Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev told GlobalPost in 2017 that the tactic was "an old Soviet trick".[73] Who Lost Russia? author Peter Conradi called whataboutism "a form of moral relativism that responds to criticism with the simple response: 'But you do it too'."[74] Conradi echoed Gaufman's comparison of the tactic to the Soviet strategy of the "Over there they lynch Negroes", response.[74] Writing for Forbes in 2017, journalist Melik Kaylan explained the increased pervasiveness of the term whataboutism to refer to the Russian propaganda tactic: "Kremlinologists of recent years call this 'whataboutism' because the Kremlin's various mouthpieces deployed the technique so exhaustively against the U.S."[75] The New Yorker described the whataboutism Russian tactic in 2017 as "a strategy of false moral equivalences".[25] Clarence Page wrote of the tactic, "It's a Cold War-era term for a form of logical jiu-jitsu that helps you to win arguments by gently changing the subject."[76] Foreign Policy wrote that Russian whataboutism was "part of the national psyche".[28] After the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting, journalist Chuck Todd criticized the tenor of political debate, commenting, "What-about-ism is among the worst instincts of partisans on both sides. When somebody says, ‘This,’ they say, ‘Well, what about that?’ That’s not the issue. Hopefully everybody is looking in the mirror tonight."[77][78]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Kurtzleben, Danielle (17 March 2017). "Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism". NPR. Retrieved 20 May 2017. This particular brand of changing the subject is called 'whataboutism' — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia.
  2. ^ a b Skillen, Daphne (2016), Freedom of Speech in Russia: Politics and Media from Gorbachev to Putin, BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies, Routledge, pp. 30, 110, 296, ISBN 978-1138787667
  3. ^ a b c Kasparov, Garry (2015), Winter Is Coming, PublicAffairs, pp. 43, 193–194, ISBN 978-1610396202
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Staff writer (31 January 2008). "Whataboutism". The Economist. Retrieved 3 July 2017. Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed 'whataboutism'.
  5. ^ Staff writer (11 December 2008). "The West is in danger of losing its moral authority". European Voice. Retrieved 3 July 2017. 'Whataboutism' was a favourite tactic of Soviet propagandists during the old Cold War. Any criticism of the Soviet Union's internal aggression or external repression was met with a 'what about?' some crime of the West, from slavery to the Monroe doctrine.
  6. ^ Lucas, Edward (7 February 2017), "Trump has become Putin's ally in Russia's war on the West", CNN, retrieved 3 July 2017, 'Whataboutism' was a favorite Kremlin propaganda technique during the Cold War. It aimed to portray the West as so morally flawed that its criticism of the Soviet empire was hypocritical.
  7. ^ Sakwa, Richard (2015), Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands, I.B.Tauris, p. 216, ISBN 978-1784530648
  8. ^ Trudolyubov, Maxim (15 January 2017), "How Putin succeeded in undermining our institutions", Newsweek, retrieved 3 July 2017, The way the Kremlin has always reacted to reports about corruption or arbitrary police rule, or the state of Russia's penal institutions, is by generating similar reports about the West. Whatever the other party says the answer is always the same: 'Look who's talking.' This age-old technique, dubbed 'whataboutism,' is in essence an appeal to hypocrisy; its only purpose is to discredit the opponent, not to refute the original argument.
  9. ^ Trudolyubov, Maxim (11 January 2017), "No Beacon On the Hill: Trump's Win in the Mirror of the Soviet Collapse", The Moscow Times, retrieved 3 July 2017, This age-old technique, dubbed 'whataboutism,' is in essence an appeal to hypocrisy; its only purpose is to discredit the opponent, not to refute the original argument.
  10. ^ a b Tracinski, Robert (25 August 2014), "Crime: Understanding Ferguson: Fort Apache, Missouri", The Federalist, retrieved 5 July 2017, Back in the Cold War, we had a term for this: 'whataboutism.' Whenever anyone criticized the Soviets about the gulags, their mouthpieces would start a sentence with 'What about…' and go on to talk about racism and poverty and whatever bad thing they could think of that was happening in the United States.
  11. ^ a b c Dougherty, Jill (24 July 2016), "Olympic doping ban unleashes fury in Moscow", CNN, retrieved 4 July 2017, There's another attitude toward doping allegations 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?'
  12. ^ a b Ioffe, Julia (1 June 2012), "Russia's Syrian Excuse", The New Yorker, retrieved 3 July 2017, This posture is a defense tactic, the Kremlin's way of adapting to a new post-Cold War geopolitical reality. 'Whataboutism' was a popular tactic even back in Soviet days, for example, but objectivity wasn't.
  13. ^ a b Seddon, Max (25 November 2014), "Russia Is Trolling The U.S. Over Ferguson Yet Again", BuzzFeed News, retrieved 3 July 2017, Since the Cold War, Moscow has engaged in a political points-scoring exercise known as 'whataboutism' used to shut down criticism of Russia's own rights record by pointing out abuses elsewhere. All criticism of Russia is invalid, the idea goes, because problems exist in other countries too.
  14. ^ a b Keating, Joshua (21 March 2014). "The Long History of Russian Whataboutism". Slate.com. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  15. ^ a b Drezner, Daniel (20 August 2014). "Ferguson, whataboutism and American soft power". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  16. ^ a b Elder, Miriam (April 26, 2012). "Want a response from Putin's office? Russia's dry-cleaning is just the ticket". The Guardian. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c Buckley, Neil (11 June 2012), "The return of whataboutism", Financial Times, retrieved 3 July 2017
  18. ^ a b Zimmer, Ben (9 June 2017), "The Roots of the 'What About?' Ploy", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 3 July 2017, In his interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin employed the tried-and-true tactic of 'whataboutism.'
  19. ^ a b Leveille, David (January 24, 2017). "Russian journalist has advice for Americans covering Trump". USA Today.
  20. ^ a b c d Sullivan, Jake (7 February 2017). "The Slippery Slope of Trump's Dangerous 'Whataboutism'". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  21. ^ a b Harding, Luke (1 August 2013), "Edward Snowden asylum case is a gift for Vladimir Putin", The Guardian, retrieved 3 July 2017, Russia's president is already a master of 'whataboutism' – indeed, it is practically a national ideology.
  22. ^ a b c d Ioffe, Julia (March 2, 2014), "Kremlin TV Loves Anti-War Protests—Unless Russia Is the One Waging War - Studies in 'whataboutism'", The New Republic, retrieved 3 July 2017
  23. ^ a b c Adomanis, Mark (5 April 2015), "U.S. Should Think Twice Before Criticizing Russia", The Moscow Times, retrieved 3 July 2017, Whataboutism's efficacy decreased for a certain period of time, in no small part because many of the richest targets (like the Jim Crow racial segregation laws) were reformed out of existence, but it has made something of a rebound over the past few years.
  24. ^ a b Bershidsky, Leonid (13 September 2016), "Hack of Anti-Doping Agency Poses New Ethical Questions", Bloomberg News, retrieved 3 July 2017, Russian officials protested that other nations were no better, but these objections -- which were in line with a Russian tradition of whataboutism -- were swept aside.
  25. ^ a b Osnos, Evan; Remnick, David; Yaffa, Joshua (6 March 2017), "Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War", The New Yorker, retrieved 3 July 2017
  26. ^ a b Mackey, Robert (19 August 2014), "Russia, Iran and Egypt Heckle U.S. About Tactics in Ferguson", The New York Times, retrieved 4 July 2017, officials in Moscow have long relied on discussions of racial inequality in the United States to counter criticism of their own human rights abuses. 'The now sacred Russian tactic of 'whataboutism' started with civil rights,' Ms. Ioffe wrote. 'Whenever the U.S. pointed to Soviet human rights violations, the Soviets had an easy riposte. 'Well, you,' they said, 'lynch Negros.
  27. ^ a b Dougherty, Jill (14 August 2014), "Ferguson Will Make It Harder for America to Set a Good Example Abroad", The New Republic, retrieved 4 July 2017, The now sacred Russian tactic of 'whataboutism' started with civil rights: Whenever the U.S. pointed to Soviet human rights violations, the Soviets had an easy riposte. 'Well, you,' they said, 'lynch Negros.'
  28. ^ a b Ferris-Rotman, Amie (7 April 2017), "Dispatch - 59 Ways to Kill a Russian Reset: All it takes is a few dozen Tomahawk missiles and a lecture on human rights.", Foreign Policy, retrieved 5 July 2017, In a country where 'whataboutism' is part of the national psyche, Russia was quick to point to Washington's alleged failures after the strike in Syria.
  29. ^ "Why the what-about-ism? - James Comey says the FBI is investigating possible links between Trump and Russia", The Economist, Democracy in America: American politics, 20 March 2017, retrieved 4 July 2017, One of the most trusted Soviet techniques during the Cold War came to be known in the West as 'what-about-ism'. Faced with an accusation, for example that the Soviet Union worked political dissidents to death in prison camps, the propagandist would respond: well, what about those black men being forced to work on chain gangs in the South? This was effective, because by the time anyone had explained that the two are not, in fact, morally equivalent, the technique had done its work, changing the subject away from the gulag.
  30. ^ Umland, Andreas (2017), "The Ukrainian Government's Memory Institute Against the West", IndraStra Global, 3 (3): 7, ISSN 2381-3652, retrieved 4 July 2017, what was known during Soviet times, as 'whataboutism'
  31. ^ Headley, James (September 2015), "Challenging the EU's claim to moral authority: Russian talk of'double standards'", Asia Europe Journal, 13 (3): 297–307, Soviet-style 'whataboutism' which signifies a revival of Cold War-style propaganda {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  32. ^ Saradzhyan, Simon (2014), "Crimea is just one episode in Russia's long game in post-Soviet Eurasia", 21st Century, 1: 15, retrieved 4 July 2017, Russian diplomats have been lately criticized for restoring the Soviet habit of 'whataboutism'
  33. ^ Wilson, Jeanne L. (2016), "Cultural Statecraft in the Russian and Chinese Contexts: Domestic and International Implications", Problems of Post-Communism, 63 (3): 135–145, doi:10.1080/10758216.2015.1132630, retrieved 4 July 2017, Soviet-style practice of 'whataboutism' (which abandons the practice of dispassionate journalism), with a focus on discrediting the policies of the US government
  34. ^ Glavin, Terry (30 November 2016), "Sorry liberals, you're dead wrong about Fidel Castro", Ottawa Citizen, retrieved 3 July 2017
  35. ^ a b Khazan, Olga (2 August 2013). "The Soviet-Era Strategy That Explains What Russia Is Doing With Snowden". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 July 2017. Whataboutistm: a rhetorical defense that alleges hypocrisy from the accuser. ... it allows the Kremlin a moment of whataboutism, a favorite, Soviet-era appeal to hypocrisy: Russia is not that bad, you see, because other countries have also committed various misdeeds, and what about those?
  36. ^ Akyol, Mustafa (7 March 2017), "How Germany accidentally gave Erdogan a boost ahead of key vote", Al-Monitor, retrieved 3 July 2017, 'Whataboutism.' This was a term originally coined to describe Soviet propaganda during the Cold War about the "real democracy" in the USSR and the hypocrisy in the West. All criticisms about the Soviet condition would be dismissed by pointing to flaws and double standards in the West, real or perceived, and asking "What about this?" "What about that?" The real issue at stake, that the USSR was a brutal dictatorship, was never addressed.
  37. ^ Taylor, Adam (12 April 2017), "How the Russian Embassy in London uses Twitter to undermine the West", The Washington Post, retrieved 3 July 2017
  38. ^ Weiss, Michael (4 November 2016), "Russian Dressing: When Donald Trump Was More Anti-NATO Than Vladimir Putin", The Daily Beast, retrieved 3 July 2017, In stark contrast with his predecessors for high office, he also regularly traffics in 'whataboutism,' a Soviet-honed method of changing the conversation.
  39. ^ Garver, Rob (18 December 2015), "Donald Trump's New Role: Apologist for Vladimir Putin", The Fiscal Times, retrieved 3 July 2017, In the depths of the Cold War, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in a global battle of ideas about how governments should treat their people and what political forms were best at delivering peace and prosperity, a particular style of argument became popular and was given the ironic name, 'whataboutism.' ... During the Cold War, whataboutism was generally the province of Soviet spokesmen and their defenders in the West.
  40. ^ Nikitin, Vadim, "The long read: From Russia with love – how Putin is winning over hearts and minds", The National, archived from the original on 4 February 2016, retrieved 3 July 2017, During the Cold War, such 'whataboutism' was used by the Kremlin to counter any criticism of Soviet policy with retorts about American slavery or British imperialism. The strategy remains an effective rhetorical weapon to this day.
  41. ^ Foxall, Andrew (16 November 2014), "Crimea, Chechnya and Putin's Double Standards", The Moscow Times, retrieved 3 July 2017, Those wishing to understand Putin's linguistic gymnastics should look up 'whataboutism.' The term emerged at the height of the Cold War and described a favorite tactic of Soviet propagandists — the tendency to deflect any criticism of the Soviet Union by saying 'what about' a different situation or problem in the West. As Putin's language suggests, the practice is alive and well in today's Russia. Whataboutism is a way of shutting down discussion, discouraging critical thinking, and opposing open debate. It is a key feature of Russian politics these days.
  42. ^ Taylor, Adam (30 December 2014), "What if North Korea didn't hack Sony?", The Washington Post, retrieved 4 July 2017, They are a modern take on the 'whataboutism' deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The logic behind 'whataboutism' isn't to deny your own crimes, of course. It's to say that those accusing you are hypocritical and unfairly targeting you.
  43. ^ Miller, Christopher (29 April 2015), "Russian media is loving the Baltimore riots", Mashable, retrieved 4 July 2017, Russia's propaganda machine got to work exploiting the unrest with what is known locally as 'whataboutism.' In the Soviet era, any criticism of the Motherland — such human rights violations or censorship — was met with a 'what about...' in an attempt to redirect attention away from Moscow.
  44. ^ "Russian and Ukrainian Propaganda Through the Looking Glass", Russia!, Russia! magazine, 9 May 2015, retrieved 4 July 2017, a textbook example of every possible Soviet cliché, particularly and most glaringly whataboutism.
  45. ^ MacDonald, Euan (9 June 2017), "Euan MacDonald: Ukraine's Friend & Foe Of The Week", Kyiv Post, retrieved 4 July 2017, Putin dodged, just as a trained KGB officer would do. He even engaged in the favorite Kremlin 'whataboutism'
  46. ^ Kovalev, Alexey (22 March 2017), "'You're Fake News!': Russia Borrows the Worst from the West", The Moscow Times, retrieved 4 July 2017, In Russia, screaming 'fake news' as a response to any criticism has an older relative in 'whataboutism' — a rhetorical fallacy favored by both Soviet and modern Russian propaganda, where Moscow's actions are justified by references to real or perceived crimes and slights by the Kremlin's foes abroad.
  47. ^ Szostek, Joanna (June 2017), "The Power and Limits of Russia's Strategic Narrative in Ukraine: The Role of Linkage", Perspectives on Politics, 15 (2): 379–395, doi:10.1017/S153759271700007X, retrieved 4 July 2017, Disinformation and 'whataboutism' undoubtedly feature strongly in Russian state-sponsored media content
  48. ^ Pomerantsev, Peter; Weiss, Michael (2014), The menace of unreality: How the Kremlin weaponizes information, culture and money (PDF), New York: Institute of Modern Russia, p. 5, retrieved 4 July 2017, Russia combines Soviet-era 'whataboutism' and Chekist 'active measures' with a wised-up, post-modern smirk that says that everything is a sham. {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  49. ^ Huseynov, Vasif (2016), "Soft power geopolitics: how does the diminishing utility of military power affect the Russia-West confrontation over the 'Common Neighbourhood'", Eastern Journal of European Studies, 7 (2): 71–90, retrieved 4 July 2017
  50. ^ Skaskiw, Roman (27 March 2016), "Nine Lessons of Russian Propaganda", Small Wars Journal, retrieved 5 July 2017, They pursue several tactics including the false moral equivalences of 'whataboutism,' polluting the information space (more below), and hosting seemingly objective discussions that give equal play to the truth alongside the most ludicrous distortions, making the truth seem like the least interesting of many possible narratives.
  51. ^ David, Maxine (2 March 2015), "What Boris Nemtsov's Assassination Says About Putin's Climate of Fear", The New Republic, retrieved 5 July 2017, A familiar phenomenon for Russian watchers is in full swing: 'whataboutism,' where any criticism of the Russian elite is met with a 'well, what about…' response, framing the critic as a hypocrite representing exactly that which they criticize—sending any dialogue back to the level of squabbling.
  52. ^ Gessen, Keith (2014), "What's the Matter with Russia: Putin and the Soviet Legacy", Foreign Affairs, 93: 182, retrieved 4 July 2017, More broadly, Russian political elites have clearly decided that they will no longer beat themselves up for the sins of the past-after all, other countries have sinned, too, they like to note, in the style of classic Soviet 'whataboutism.'
  53. ^ Opoka, Iurii, "International Approaches to the Crisis in Ukraine" (PDF), Polish Journal of Political Science, 2 (2): 73, retrieved 4 July 2017, three main techniques that are used by Russian propaganda for constructing 'right' agenda for EU's media: 'what-about-ism' (we can't criticize Russia, because the West does the same), 'An aversion to moral clarity' ( the truth is in the middle), 'It's-all-our-fault-ism' (the West has provoked Russia).
  54. ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (20 July 2016), "A Doping Scandal Appears Unlikely to Tarnish Russia's President", The New York Times, retrieved 5 July 2017, This form of 'whataboutism' has been rife under Mr. Putin — he often responds to criticism of Russia by suggesting that the United States is worse.
  55. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (4 April 2017), "'Poisoned' Russian dissident: Trump echoed 'one of the Kremlin's oldest propaganda tools'", Business Insider, retrieved 4 July 2017, Indeed, Putin's near-default response to criticism of how he runs Russia is whataboutism — a technique used by Soviet propagandists to deflect criticism from the West.
  56. ^ a b c Whitmore, Brian (6 September 2016), "Deconstructing Whataboutism", The Morning Vertical, State News Service – via HighBeam Research, Deconstructing Whataboutism - In the second part of its guide to Russian propaganda, Euromaidan Press takes a look at 'Whataboutism.' {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  57. ^ a b c d Video designer: Ganna Naronina; video script and idea: Alex Leonor, Alya Shandra (5 September 2016), A guide to Russian propaganda. Part 2: Whataboutism (video), YouTube, retrieved 3 July 2017 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  58. ^ "Azerbaijan Concerned About Human Rights -- In The United States". RFERL. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2017. The parliamentary hearing appeared to be an exercise in so-called 'whataboutism,' the Soviet-era rhetorical tactic of responding to criticism about rights abuses by citing real or imagined abuses committed by the West.
  59. ^ Geybulla, Arzu (22 November 2016), "In the crosshairs of Azerbaijan's patriotic trolls", Open Democracy, retrieved 4 July 2017, Whataboutism is the most popular tactic against foreign critics; 'how dare you criticise Azerbaijan, get your own house in order!'
  60. ^ von Eggert, Konstantin (July 25, 2012). "Due West: 'Whataboutism' Is Back - and Thriving". RIA Novosti.
  61. ^ Dougherty, Jill (2014), Everyone Lies: The Ukraine Conflict and Russia’s Media Transformation (PDF), Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, retrieved 4 July 2017, 'what-about-ism,' a time-worn propaganda technique used by the Soviet government in which criticism is deflected by cries of 'but what about?...'
  62. ^ Dougherty, Jill (27 March 2014), "Putin's Iron-Fisted Message", The Huffington Post, retrieved 3 July 2017
  63. ^ van Zuylen-Wood, Simon (4 May 2017), "At RT, News Breaks You - U.S. intelligence officials have accused the Kremlin-funded network of helping swing the election to Trump. Could such a little-watched cable channel be that powerful?", Bloomberg News, retrieved 4 July 2017, The Financial Times described the network's nonstop anti-U.S. coverage as 'whataboutism'—as in sure, Russia has problems, but what about the States? ... In 2016, RT America at last began proving its usefulness to the Russian government. The outlet remained as second-rate as ever, but during an election campaign governed by populist rage, anti-Establishment whataboutism had fresh appeal.
  64. ^ Marten, Kimberly (20 June 2016), "What Russia's Olympic ban means for Vladimir Putin", The Washington Post, retrieved 3 July 2017
  65. ^ Feldmann, Linda; Kiefer, Francine (18 May 2017), "How Mueller appointment may calm a roiled Washington", The Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 5 July 2017, Trump also engaged in 'what-aboutism': 'With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel appointed!' he tweeted twice in three hours.
  66. ^ McFaul, Michael (17 May 2017), "Trump has given Putin the best gift he could ask for", The Washington Post, retrieved 5 July 2017, As for 'whataboutism,' Trump himself champions these kinds of cynical arguments about our country — not Russia.
  67. ^ Putz, Catherine (22 July 2016). "Donald Trump's Whataboutism". The Diplomat. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  68. ^ Judge, Michael (22 March 2017), "Q&A: Garry Kasparov on the press and propaganda in Trump's America", Columbia Journalism Review, retrieved 4 July 2017, Moral relativism, 'whataboutism,' has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal regimes. For a US president to employ it against his own country is tragic. Trump repeating Putin's words—and nearly Stalin's—by calling the press the enemy of the people, has repercussions around the world.
  69. ^ Kivirähk, Juhan; Maliukevičius, Nerijus; Yeremeev, Olexandr (2010), The 'Humanitarian Dimension' of Russian Foreign Policy Toward Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, Centre for East European Policy Studies, pp. 30, 300
  70. ^ Forsberg, Tuomas; Haukkala, Hiski (2016), The European Union and Russia, The European Union Series, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 122, ISBN 978-1137355348
  71. ^ Gaufman, Elizaveta (2016), "The USA as the Primary Threat to Russia", Security Threats and Public Perception: Digital Russia and the Ukraine Crisis, New Security Challenges, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 91, ISBN 978-3319432007
  72. ^ Palmer, James (9 November 2016), "China Just Won The U.S. Election", Foreign Policy, retrieved 5 July 2017, the old Soviet whataboutism whenever they were challenged on the gulag: 'But in America, you lynch Negroes.'
  73. ^ Leveille, David (January 24, 2017), "Russian journalist has advice for Americans covering Trump", USA Today, GlobalPost, retrieved 3 July 2017
  74. ^ a b Conradi, Peter (2017), "21. 'You Do It Too'", Who Lost Russia?, Oneworld Publications, ASIN B01N6O5S32
  75. ^ Kaylan, Melik (10 January 2017), "What The Trump Era Will Feel Like: Clues From Populist Regimes Around The World", Forbes, retrieved 3 July 2017
  76. ^ Page, Clarence (10 March 2017), "How long can President Trump's art of deflection work?", NewsOK, The Chicago Tribune, retrieved 4 July 2017, 'Whataboutism' is running rampant in the White House these days. What's that, you may ask? It's a Cold War-era term for a form of logical jiu-jitsu that helps you to win arguments by gently changing the subject. When Soviet leaders were questioned about human rights violations, for example, they might come back with, 'Well, what about the Negroes you are lynching in the South?' That's not an argument, of course. It is a deflection to an entirely different issue. It's a naked attempt to excuse your own wretched behavior by painting your opponent as a hypocrite. But in the fast-paced world of media manipulation, the Soviet leader could get away with it merely by appearing to be strong and firm in defense of his country.
  77. ^ Mazza, Ed (14 June 2017), "MSNBC's Chuck Todd Calls Out Partisan 'Toxic Stew' After Shooter Targets Congressmen", The Huffington Post, retrieved 5 July 2017
  78. ^ Todd, Chuck (14 June 2017), "Chuck Todd: The Media Has 'A Role To Play' In Calling Out Caustic Rhetoric", Meet the Press, MSNBC, retrieved 5 July 2017

Further reading

Look up whataboutism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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