Permanently Deleted
I've noticed that even on the absolutely least political subreddits, if you sort by all top, one of the top posts will invariably be some variation on "Fuck the CCP." China is absolutely living rent free in their heads.
Also wow this exchange is fucked. Redditor starts out by just assuming a building is Chinese because of some sub-standard qualities and gets corrected. Then when someone points to another non-Chinese country with a history of dangerous buildings, the redditor accuses them of whataboutism. Like what? This is depressing.
Whataboutism is the card you play when your argument has been completely destroyed
one of the top posts will invariably be some variation on “Fuck the CCP.” China is absolutely living rent free in their heads.
China proving to the West that living well continues to be the best revenge.
Redditor starts out by just assuming a building is Chinese because of some sub-standard qualities and gets corrected. Then when someone points to another non-Chinese country with a history of dangerous buildings, the redditor accuses them of whataboutism. Like what?
Utterly black-pilled.
They're bringing back all the Cold War hits! Love how the US managed to convince everyone that questioning US actions should be a thought terminating cliché.
US: "You're doing a genocide in Ukraine!"
Soviets: "What about your genocides in India, America, the Middle East, China, Africa?"
US: "WHATABOUTISM!"
Soviets: "Well, we'll tell you about the situation"
US: "LIES! MURDERERS!"
Soviets: "Wanna talk about those genocides you're doing now?"
US: "WHATABOUTISM!"
Whataboutism doesn't even make sense as a rhetorical fallacy in most contexts redditors tend to use it in!
An example of an exchange the accusation of whataboutism would make sense in would be if a Chinese citizen was making a good faith criticism of some policy the Chinese government is enacting. In that case, saying America is doing the same policy wouldn't make sense because that sidesteps the whole point of the criticism: to get China to not do the thing they were doing.
On reddit, most criticisms of China are not made in good faith and are really implicit arguments comparing the virtues of capitalism vs socialism with Chinese characteristics. That is to say, they are trying to find some aspect in which China is worse than western countries. They do not believe in any way their criticism will actually impact China for the better, nor do they care if it does.
This is exactly what is going on in the screenshot above. The redditor is saying the (actually Mexican) building is probably Chinese because the quality is not up to snuff with what they perceive western buildings to be. In that case, it makes perfect sense to use a shitty western building, such as the Grenfell tower, as a counterexample. But nope, can't do that! China exists in a vacuum, any flaws as compared to a theoretical perfect country means the Chinese government is evil. Actually good governments lead countries that are perfect in every regard!
All my favorite redditorisms in here:
- randomly bring up and unrelated thing you're mad about
- randomly pull an obviously false claim out your ass
- get unreasonably angry when you're proved wrong or called out
- go on a racially charged tangent for some reason
Whataboutism
I want to go back in time, find the person who coined this term and push him off a cliff.
Is there anything more lib than shouting 'whataboutism' as a comeback?
In fairness, there are times when it's valid. Such as when talking to wehraboos/neonazis and rebuking their "bu-buh wha about muh Dresden or der Holodomor" bullshit.
But like with any otherwise valid word, libs have a way to beat it into the ground.
unlike CHINA, we aren’t indoctrinated, which is why I have intense bouts of rage whenever someone mentions china or chinese people
