probably important context to note that the reason this is a "soviet propaganda technique" is that soviets had a habit of pointing out that america was killing black people in the streets when americans tried to take the moral high ground - ThreadSky

bigbadbutchgf.bsky.social • 94 days ago

probably important context to note that the reason this is a "soviet propaganda technique" is that soviets had a habit of pointing out that america was killing black people in the streets when americans tried to take the moral high ground

Reposted from Seth Abramson

The meme I didn't know I needed

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bigbadbutchgf.bsky.social•94 days ago

whataboutism as a term being first coined by defenders of the british occupation of ireland who were fed up with being told "but you're literally occupying us, torturing us and massacring us" when they complained about the IRA

bigbadbutchgf.bsky.social•94 days ago

not an exaggeration, the original letter published in the irish times denounced republicans who would say "What about Bloody Sunday, internment, torture, force-feeding, army intimidation?" when asked to condemn the IRA. Possibly the first recorded instance of the "but do you condemn hamas?" gambit

bigbadbutchgf.bsky.social•94 days ago

it's definitely a propaganda technique, there's no question about that. Unfortunately for seth abramson "saying true things your opponent has verifiably done" remains pretty unbeatable in the field of propaganda techniques

vegetablegremlin.bsky.social•94 days ago

its a propaganda technique in that it is anything attempting to be in any way persuasive

rosekhawal.bsky.social•94 days ago

People love conflating propaganda and lying. It's pissed me off so many times because someone will say 'the US has bombed these middle eastern countries' and someone else goes 'so did Russia, this is propaganda' so people call the first statement misinfo.

conkles.bsky.social•94 days ago

It is also worth noting propaganda is in some ways morally neutral and the morality comes from what it is propaganda for is.

voline.bsky.social•94 days ago

English speakers always drop words from phrases and lose the nuance. Everyone had propaganda a hundred years ago … Then the nazis practiced "black propaganda". Then it was just "propaganda".

vegetablegremlin.bsky.social•94 days ago

the additional context was the US was not merely taking a moral high ground, but actually threatening a preemptive nuclear strike against a pre-nuclear USSR

orman.bsky.social•94 days ago

People really struggle with "Yes your point about that other thing is correct, but doesn't absolve you of the original problem" in both directions. And then again sometimes whataboutism is completely valid if you're arguing the original complaint was itself bad faith bc the opponent doesn't care

thryse.com•94 days ago

Right, this tactic only works if you’re actually doing bad shit

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