A whataboutism is a comparison, yeah. It’s just jarring to me for someone to say “oh you think this recent recording of someone who’s about to die in a non-political situation is bad? What about the recording from months ago in Palestine?!?”
Most whataboutisms are done unintentionally, but they’re worth calling out.
They’re communicating that they’ve been desensitized to a high degree because of the brutality of the genocide, that this feels pale in comparison.
I agree. I heard the audio on the news site, it had a warning which is fine, but wasn’t that bad. An adult knew she’s going to die and communicated it in a rather calm manner, it was quick, you didn’t hear anything but her voice, and wouldn’t know what happened or when relative to what she said.
I googled Learjet just to get more details on the plane, and the first thing I hit was a reddit post which had a supposed pilot explaining their experience, but the mod was in there banning people for posting the audio, with a pinned comment explaining that, and describing it as extreme gore and nsfl. It’s not that bad.
Did the video of the plane crashing horrify you?
A few years ago, it would have been horrifying. After watching children’s brains spilling out of their heads for over a year, it’s just an accident like any other, it triggers nothing emotionally.
No. A whataboutism is also rhetorical fallacy, that is just a comparison. They’re not arguing that plane crashes don’t matter because Palestine, they are specifically comparing levels of horror and stating that one is less.
Comparing levels of horror, yes, but to be a whataboutism you have to ask the question “why are they comparing it”. They want to bring attention somewhere else. Either away from the fact that they don’t have feelings about it even though other people do, or to bring attention towards something else that they’re passionate about. The latter is what prompts me to label it as whataboutism. Their profile is a mix of tech and politics so there’s precedent for their comment.
Why else would they bother commenting here if not to draw attention to something political? It’s like going to a funeral and saying “I don’t know, sure it’s sad but since I’m aware of the genocide going on, it’s not that sad”.
Part of a whataboutism is discrediting the initial claim. The comment in question explicitly reinforces the initial claim before adding a subjective opinion on which feels more severe.
Its not a whataboutism to say: “Both are bad but x feels worse to me”. That’s simply subjective opinion.
I think you’re a bit too trigger-happy with the label.
Maybe we’re reading different things. I’ll paste their comment below, removing all of the “what about”. All that’s left is discrediting people who feel bad listening to the audio.
Honestly, i felt the audio wasn’t as bad as so many people are claiming it to be. Like yes its bad, but… not that bad. They suffered for like 30 seconds, and then peace.
Then they go on with the “what about the genocide stuff”
Nice whataboutism.
It’s called a comparison.
A whataboutism is a comparison, yeah. It’s just jarring to me for someone to say “oh you think this recent recording of someone who’s about to die in a non-political situation is bad? What about the recording from months ago in Palestine?!?”
Most whataboutisms are done unintentionally, but they’re worth calling out.
They’re communicating that they’ve been desensitized to a high degree because of the brutality of the genocide, that this feels pale in comparison.
I agree. I heard the audio on the news site, it had a warning which is fine, but wasn’t that bad. An adult knew she’s going to die and communicated it in a rather calm manner, it was quick, you didn’t hear anything but her voice, and wouldn’t know what happened or when relative to what she said.
I googled Learjet just to get more details on the plane, and the first thing I hit was a reddit post which had a supposed pilot explaining their experience, but the mod was in there banning people for posting the audio, with a pinned comment explaining that, and describing it as extreme gore and nsfl. It’s not that bad.
Did the video of the plane crashing horrify you?
A few years ago, it would have been horrifying. After watching children’s brains spilling out of their heads for over a year, it’s just an accident like any other, it triggers nothing emotionally.
No. A whataboutism is also rhetorical fallacy, that is just a comparison. They’re not arguing that plane crashes don’t matter because Palestine, they are specifically comparing levels of horror and stating that one is less.
Comparing levels of horror, yes, but to be a whataboutism you have to ask the question “why are they comparing it”. They want to bring attention somewhere else. Either away from the fact that they don’t have feelings about it even though other people do, or to bring attention towards something else that they’re passionate about. The latter is what prompts me to label it as whataboutism. Their profile is a mix of tech and politics so there’s precedent for their comment.
Why else would they bother commenting here if not to draw attention to something political? It’s like going to a funeral and saying “I don’t know, sure it’s sad but since I’m aware of the genocide going on, it’s not that sad”.
Part of a whataboutism is discrediting the initial claim. The comment in question explicitly reinforces the initial claim before adding a subjective opinion on which feels more severe.
Its not a whataboutism to say: “Both are bad but x feels worse to me”. That’s simply subjective opinion.
I think you’re a bit too trigger-happy with the label.
Maybe we’re reading different things. I’ll paste their comment below, removing all of the “what about”. All that’s left is discrediting people who feel bad listening to the audio.
Then they go on with the “what about the genocide stuff”
It’s not genocide stuff, its a specific event that is harrowing if you care
What about absolutism?