Recent political discourse got me thinking about whataboutism. Quoting from Wikipedia “The term Whataboutism stems from the conjunction of the two words what + about to twist criticism back on the critic himself”
Two of the most famous examples of it are the Soviet Union and Trump, but this is spreading like wildfire in India since Modi’s win. Almost any question on any topic in a national debate/discussion leads to a reply which is also a rhetorical question. Why are there no jobs?..is replied by…What did the UPA Government do about jobs?…just recurse 5-6times times and ask the question ….What did Nehru do for the jobs?
At its core, it’s an admission of guilt and wrongdoing. When one doesn’t have anything to offer as a defense for their actions they simply turn and blame someone else. The blame on the other party can be on any issue under the sun, but mostly is on things which quickly incite people and make them forget about the actual discussion itself. Bring in cows, Ayodhya, Pakistan, China and Islam, casteism…
Religion is the easiest tool to propagandize an opinion. For example- Indian culture is so hush hush about sex and anything related to it. I was offended when there was a discussion about the shiva lingam and yoni and its representation. So we took the act of (reproductive) creation, symbolized it, and now worship it. B is derived from A, A is frowned upon and B is worshiped. The next time abhishekam happens think about it’s meaning!!
Then there’s also attacking the person instead of his ideology. If the discussion is about economy why question the person opposition on his second marriage. On a side note, one must separate views about a person’s work from views about a person. Charlie Chaplin or Woody Allen were sexual predators, when I look at their work I judge their work independently of who they were in personal lives. Paradoxically, I do believe that giving them an Oscar has social costs, ie it sends a signal to the society that such actions are ok.
It’s easy to get brainwashed in today’s time, social media in itself is an ideological echo chamber wherein you are only shown what you like and your views might become extreme. Add confirmation bias, one tends to give much more importance to things that confirm one’s preconceptions, we all hate cognitive dissonance. Our brains are highly irrational by nature( If you think you are rational I’d recommend you read about cognitive biases ). So, this creates an atmosphere where instead of a bunch of people whose views cover the entire spectrum, you have clusters of people at parts of the spectrum. And each side hates the other without understanding the reasons.
There’s no left or right in the political landscape of India, Congress/UPA, and BJP/NDA have no major differences in economic or social policies. The only way debate goes around is by attacking people, blaming others and dodging questions(why equivocate when you can dodge!). The ruling party is vainglorious even when they don’t even represent say a quarter of the vote(since India follows a first pass the post system). There’s a lot of mindless shouting in our debates, I sometimes imagine putting two scientists or engineers in the debate, they’d mathematically try to prove(or find evidence for) their opinion and be more open to accepting something that’s logical.
A few enlightened individuals here and there gives me hope, the kind that maintains decorum and speaks logically, even if it’s 0.01% of the population there’d be 130,000 such people.
iamonlyhuman 