Yes… Because my driving to work in my car is somehow so much worse on our entire world compared to what billionaires are doing or taking an airplane for a 2hr commute or burning coal to power a nation. Or given the fact that our corporate overlords require us to be in office in the first place when my work could be 100% remote… I see I am the problem.
“Whataboutism” or “whataboutery” (as in, “but what about X?”) refers to the propaganda strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of offering an explanation or defense against the original accusation. It is an informal fallacy that the accused party uses to avoid accountability—whether attempting to distract by shifting the conversation’s focus away from their behaviour or attempting to justify themselves by pointing to the similar behaviour (which may be true or false, but irrelevant) of their opponent or another party who is not the current subject of discussion.[1]
Because my driving to work in my car is somehow so much worse on our entire world compared to what billionaires are doing
That wasn’t the claim. My point was that driving makes the world worse. The presence of other people making the world worse to greater degrees or at greater speed is irrelevant.
You’re arguing against a made up claim, probably to justify feeling attacked. Your ego is threatened. It’s common for people to lash out when their sense of being a Good Person is threatened.
you’re correct about the “making the world worse” part. it’s like choosing to toss something in the trash rather than recycling it; that choice may be negligible in the grand scheme of things, but it is worse.
you’re just being an asshole about it.
the way to get people to choose public transit over driving is to improve public transit infrastructure, so that public transit becomes an actual viable alternative to driving, much in the same way the choice to recycle is dependent on the availability of recycling bins and programs.
trying to shame people into switching without taking into account these environmental variables just makes you a prick.
trying to shame people into switching without taking into account these environmental variables just makes you a prick.
You’re right about how shame doesn’t work. It’s an enduring peeve of mine that you have to butter people up and manage their emotions to get them to do anything. It just feels like everyone’s a toddler that needs a shiny sticker so they won’t poison themselves. You’ll be like “smoking is bad for you and everyone around you” and they’ll be like “fuck you I’m going to smoke more now”.
However, in this case the person said they had viable transit. It was just ten minutes slower.
You directed your reply to me “You” means me. Then telling me I am making the world worse.
That is literally attacking someone and you attempting to gaslight by pretending that wasn’t your intention is either an intentional oversight, so you are a moron OR your intention was to fight someone because they do something you don’t like… I’m guessing driving a car.
Your furthering it about my ego and it being a made up claim really just goes to show how far you have taken this.
You are making the world worse by driving when other options are available.
You then responded to this claim by changing the topic to how billionaires are making the world worse. That’s a whole other topic. That’s probably a deflection to preserve your sense of self as a good person.
If you truly believe “other people are worse so I’m allowed to be bad too” then go ahead and say it. I don’t think that’s a great moral framework, but it would require you to admit that your unnecessary driving is in fact bad, so I’d take that as a win.
Yes… Because my driving to work in my car is somehow so much worse on our entire world compared to what billionaires are doing or taking an airplane for a 2hr commute or burning coal to power a nation. Or given the fact that our corporate overlords require us to be in office in the first place when my work could be 100% remote… I see I am the problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
“Whataboutism” or “whataboutery” (as in, “but what about X?”) refers to the propaganda strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of offering an explanation or defense against the original accusation. It is an informal fallacy that the accused party uses to avoid accountability—whether attempting to distract by shifting the conversation’s focus away from their behaviour or attempting to justify themselves by pointing to the similar behaviour (which may be true or false, but irrelevant) of their opponent or another party who is not the current subject of discussion.[1]
That wasn’t the claim. My point was that driving makes the world worse. The presence of other people making the world worse to greater degrees or at greater speed is irrelevant.
You’re arguing against a made up claim, probably to justify feeling attacked. Your ego is threatened. It’s common for people to lash out when their sense of being a Good Person is threatened.
you’re correct about the “making the world worse” part. it’s like choosing to toss something in the trash rather than recycling it; that choice may be negligible in the grand scheme of things, but it is worse.
you’re just being an asshole about it.
the way to get people to choose public transit over driving is to improve public transit infrastructure, so that public transit becomes an actual viable alternative to driving, much in the same way the choice to recycle is dependent on the availability of recycling bins and programs.
trying to shame people into switching without taking into account these environmental variables just makes you a prick.
You’re right about how shame doesn’t work. It’s an enduring peeve of mine that you have to butter people up and manage their emotions to get them to do anything. It just feels like everyone’s a toddler that needs a shiny sticker so they won’t poison themselves. You’ll be like “smoking is bad for you and everyone around you” and they’ll be like “fuck you I’m going to smoke more now”.
However, in this case the person said they had viable transit. It was just ten minutes slower.
You directed your reply to me “You” means me. Then telling me I am making the world worse.
That is literally attacking someone and you attempting to gaslight by pretending that wasn’t your intention is either an intentional oversight, so you are a moron OR your intention was to fight someone because they do something you don’t like… I’m guessing driving a car.
Your furthering it about my ego and it being a made up claim really just goes to show how far you have taken this.
Learn to communicate. Peace.
You are making the world worse by driving when other options are available.
You then responded to this claim by changing the topic to how billionaires are making the world worse. That’s a whole other topic. That’s probably a deflection to preserve your sense of self as a good person.
If you truly believe “other people are worse so I’m allowed to be bad too” then go ahead and say it. I don’t think that’s a great moral framework, but it would require you to admit that your unnecessary driving is in fact bad, so I’d take that as a win.