For a number of weeks now as I’ve observed the political debate in the United States I’ve been searching for a certain term. A term used to describe a behaviour used by some in an argument to point out the opposing view’s hypocrisy.

I found the term I was looking for: whatboutism or the UK’s version or whataboutery. It’s an English and politicised term for the Latin Tu quoque, which means ‘you too’.

Whataboutism is a term that probably entered the English language as a result a 2008 article in The Economist by Edward Lucas. It was a tool used by the Soviet propaganda machine. When anyone would criticise the Soviet Union, the propagandists would defend the government’s actions by pointing out the hypocrisy of those making the criticism by saying ‘what about…’ and stating how the accuser would have done something similar. When the US criticised the Soviets on human rights, the Soviets would counter ‘…and you are hanging blacks’.

Doesn’t that sound incredibly similar to what we are seeing in the current debate … and even more so with the prevalence of political memes and Twitter?

Here’s an example on Twitter. President Trump’s special adviser, KellyAnne Conway, went on national TV and commented on the ‘Bowling Green Massacre’. She made a boo boo as there was no massacre in Bowling Green. After being caught out she went to Twitter and admitted that ‘honest mistakes abound’. But she didn’t leave it at that. She went on to say what about a prominent liberal editor who ran a fake news story … what about the journalist who ran a supposedly erroneous story about a Martin Luther King Jr bust being removed in the White House. Ms Conway has perfected ‘whataboutism’. When Chelsey Clinton questioned Conway’s facts about Bowling Green, Conway retaliated with a comment about President Clinton’s Bosnia comments.

Another example from a meme on the same issue. The meme says that President Obama blocked all Iraqi refugees from entering the US for six months and then cries out there were no protests and the left said nothing at the time. Another example of whataboutsim with the intention in this case of using an exaggeration of the truth to point out some perceived hypocrisy.

I’m sure the left has used whataboutism as well as the right and I can imagine some people would counter the two examples I’ve provided with their own whataboutisms about whataboutism.

I don’t buy it as I feel it’s just a propaganda tool to deflect debate about the issues at hand. Two wrongs don’t make a right. If I criticise you for something that I myself have done, then yes I am a hypocrite, but I am criticising you because I want to progress and dwell on the current not the past.

So let’s make a pact, I won’t use whataboutisms if you agree not to as well.

Agreed?