zlacker

>>el_dud+(OP)
The US is forcing its tourists to give away a list of all their social media accounts and all their email accounts. If you're a foreign journalist writing pseudonymously for your safety, you must now share that information with the US government to enter the country. This isn't quite on the level of forcing people to install malware on their phone yet, but give it a couple years.

>>murbar+04
> The US ...

This style of argument is deflection, and it gets us nowhere.

It's very effective in redirecting the focus away from one bad actor and onto another bad actor, though.

>>panark+ph
Call it what it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

>>bduers+no
Can you explain what's wrong with whataboutism?

>>theslu+Do
> Whataboutism (also known as whataboutery) is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument

Like GP said, it derails discussions into talking about a different bad actor than the actual one committing the bad behavior, while (intentional or not) minimizing said behavior. In short, just because the bad behavior exists elsewhere does not justify doing the bad behavior, or makes it any less bad, and the act of pointing it out can be a poor attempt at distraction from culpability.