Whataboutery
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one's opponent of similar or worse faults. countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable
"Criticism is stereotyped as 'civil servant bashing' or the weapon of whataboutery is unsheathed: official statements accelerate about inefficient private sector management."
- 2 Protesting at inconsistency; refusing to act in one instance unless similar action is taken in other similar instances. countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable
"They are skilled in whataboutery: the art of avoiding the issue."
Example
More examples"Criticism is stereotyped as 'civil servant bashing' or the weapon of whataboutery is unsheathed: official statements accelerate about inefficient private sector management."
Etymology
From what about + -ery. Originally used in describing political discourse during the Northern Ireland troubles, it has also found use in discussions of the origins of other prolonged sectarian conflicts, such as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.