It is exactly whataboutism. You are shifting the focus of the discussion by saying “what about america? They are worse.” The subject was not america being shit (it is) it was about China.
You are aware that more than one country is capable of being shit at the same time?
Say some country was denying Jews the right to vote, and we were living in 1940-1945. If you were criticizing that country, would it be whataboutism for me to tell you to shut up about them, because Germany is a far bigger problem for Jews? No, because in comparison to Nazi Germany, denying the right to vote is irrelevant. In terms of level of meddling in intl affairs, I do not think China is a relevant player in the arena when considering the top offender.
X doesn’t matter because Y, so we can’t waste effort on X.
It’s not about what’s right it’s about not saying mean things about the people you like and instead saying mean things about the people you don’t like.
More than one thing can be bad at the same time and that’s no reason to disregard one issue because there is a worse version of it somewhere. Instead of arguing with me on an obscure corner of the internet why don’t you go do something about those issues that bother you?
It is exactly whataboutism. You are shifting the focus of the discussion by saying “what about america? They are worse.” The subject was not america being shit (it is) it was about China.
You are aware that more than one country is capable of being shit at the same time?
Say some country was denying Jews the right to vote, and we were living in 1940-1945. If you were criticizing that country, would it be whataboutism for me to tell you to shut up about them, because Germany is a far bigger problem for Jews? No, because in comparison to Nazi Germany, denying the right to vote is irrelevant. In terms of level of meddling in intl affairs, I do not think China is a relevant player in the arena when considering the top offender.
X doesn’t matter because Y, so we can’t waste effort on X.
It’s not about what’s right it’s about not saying mean things about the people you like and instead saying mean things about the people you don’t like.
More than one thing can be bad at the same time and that’s no reason to disregard one issue because there is a worse version of it somewhere. Instead of arguing with me on an obscure corner of the internet why don’t you go do something about those issues that bother you?