Whataboutism

//ˌwə.təˈbaʊ.tɪ.zəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising unrelated criticisms of the opposite side. countable, rhetoric, uncountable

    "And I'd no time at all for 'What aboutism' - you know, people who said 'Yes, but what about what's been done to us? ... That had nothing to do with it, and if you got into it you were defending the indefensible."

Synonyms

All synonyms
tu quoquewhataboutery

Example

More examples

"And I'd no time at all for 'What aboutism' - you know, people who said 'Yes, but what about what's been done to us? ... That had nothing to do with it, and if you got into it you were defending the indefensible."

Etymology

From what about + -ism. First use appears c. 1978 in The Guardian.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.