If I had a dollar for every liberal who has accused me or some other ML of “whataboutism” concerning the Uighur “genocide” or Russia’s “aggression” in Ukraine, I’d be a rich woman. I suspect many of you have had similar experiences.

Libs love this quick jab of a response because it’s technically a sound argument. Saying something to the effect of “America is worse” doesn’t automatically imply the opposition, be they the CPC or whoever else, is completely innocent of whatever crime they’re accused of committing.

But liberals completely miss the point of this argument, deliberately or not. Put simply, “America bad” arguments are about casting doubt on the legitimacy of the organizations peddling these lies. Knowing that the Western media conditionally reports and condemns war and genocide proves they have ulterior motives in doing so. This is how we can be certain consent is being manufactured for a new cold war. It forces people to wonder if they’ve swallowed malicious propaganda.

Liberals get angry when you take their sources from them, and crying “whataboutism” is a weak parry we can just charge through. Don’t get psyched out by it. When every “credible” source spews malignant falsehoods about AES states, we need to challenge those sources. It’s faster and easier than debunking these lies piecemeal, and has the advantage of operating beyond the scope of liberal thought.

You’re not arguing fallaciously when you draw attention to the blinding hypocrisy of the American empire. Create distrust of the Western propaganda machine at all costs. This is important work, and we’re the only ones doing it.

  • @lxvi
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    1 year ago

    Yeah I think the argument is not to excuse on evil for another; its instead to discredit the accusing voice. With the Uighur thing, along with anything and all things China, the argument is that it’s not happening or that its happening much differently than its being presented.

    Before we can get anything across to people we must first convince them that they have no reliable sources of information; that, their established sources are feeding them total fabrications or distortions so extreme as to leave them less informed than if they knew nothing at all. The only way to do this is to point out the long history of lies.

    We can’t be left constantly fighting in the moment, according to what’s currently trending, without any historical memory. We will lose.

    Neither can we allow the topic of conversation to be completed by our adversary. The major error of the cold war was the constant apologia. Read Chomsky or anyone of his kind and you will find any criticism of the Capitalist Order post-scripted with an invasive and unwarranted criticism of the USSR. We must avoid the position of apologia. We do ourselves no favors and will gain nothing but a weakened stance.

    Our position in these things should be clear. If we know they are lying we should call them liars and point out all the other times they’ve lied. Every time they point to a foreign nation we should strongly remind them that its nothing to do with you, that you have no interest in being obsessed with foreign affairs while your own house is out of order. If should be remembered that nobody involved in the conversation is Chinese and that what China does does not immediately concern us. Its pathological to be obsessed with our neighbors while our own house is out of order. Our own affairs need our attention, and our own affairs are the immediate concern of our people.