Dan Zak explores Donald Trump’s strategic use of “whataboutism,” a rhetorical device to deflect attention from the issue at hand.
Ask him about the Mueller investigation and don’t be surprised when he says “what about Hillary’s 33,000 emails.”
Zak writes:
“What about antifa? What about free speech? What about the guy who shot Steve Scalise? What about the mosque in Minnesota that got bombed? What about North Korea? What about murders in Chicago? What about Ivanka at the G-20? What about Vince Foster? If white pride is bad, then what about gay pride? What about the stock market? What about those 33,000 deleted emails? What about Hitler? What about the Crusades? What about the asteroid that may one day kill us all? What about Benghazi?
“What about what about what about.
“We’ve gotten very good at what-abouting.
“The president has led the way.
“His campaign may or may not have conspired with Moscow, but President Trump has routinely employed a durable old Soviet propaganda tactic. Tuesday’s bonkers news conference in New York was Trump’s latest act of “whataboutism,” the practice of short-circuiting an argument by asserting moral equivalency between two things that aren’t necessarily comparable. In this case, the president wondered whether the removal of a statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville — where white supremacists clashed this weekend with counterprotesters — would lead to the teardown of others.”
Deflect, deflect, deflect.
Change the subject.
Mueller is at work every day. Whataboutism doesn’t matter to him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yep. Can’t have both domestic needs and military dominance. Trump totally dismisses the idea of negotiating. I see a problem with his dependence upon the guidance of generals.
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State Dept. Official Who Quit in 2009 over U.S. War in Afghanistan Speaks Out on Trump’s Troop Surge
AUGUST 22, 2017
…both President Eisenhower and also President Kennedy recognized, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King, recognize this intersection that the wars abroad are intersected with the wars at home, that we can’t have peace at home while having war abroad. As long as we have $700 billion defense budgets, we will never have universal health care. As long as both political parties vote for killing in war and prisons, we will never prioritize taking care of our own people. But, what President Eisenhower said, was, looking at a chair in the oval office, he said, “I pity this country if a man ever sits in this chair who has never served in the military.” And what he meant by that was that, not that the military gives you some level of expertise or some level of knowledge, or some level of experience, but that a civilian would be run roughshod over, that he wouldn’t be able to raise the BS flag, that he would not know that the generals are just going to lie to him over and over and over again. And because that is ultimately what war is, just one continual lie. And that is what we have seen in Afghanistan, that’s what we’ve seen in Iraq, that’s what we’ve seen in Vietnam, etc., etc. And I think that’s what’s happening here. And of course President Trump is probably, may be our most malleable and easily influenced president of all time.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/22/state_dept_official_who_quit_in
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“Mueller is at work every day. Whataboutism doesn’t matter to him”.
What about when he issues pardons and fires Mueller
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“Whataboutism” is just another name for one of the logical fallacies all students should be able to recognize upon graduation from high school. Speech and debate should be a requirement, if not a whole course then at least incorporated into the curriculum somewhere.
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tRump in the past has Twittered about the worthless wars the US has entered. Now he’s planning to send more troops to Afghanistan. Was he influenced by his generals or was his talk a promise he had no intention of keeping? Maybe he just forgot what he said in the past…dementia? There is no believing anything he says because he continually lies or causes chaos to deflect from deeper issues he wants to hide.
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“We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let’s get out!” – Donald J. Trump, 21 Nov 2013
“Afghanistan is a total disaster. We don’t know what we are doing. They are, in addition to everything else, robbing us blind.” – Donald J. Trump, 12 Mar 2012
“When will we stop wasting our money on rebuilding Afghanistan? We must rebuild our country first.” – Donald J. Trump, 7 Oct 2011
“A suicide bomber has just killed U.S. troops in Afghanistan. When will our leaders get tough and smart. We are being led to slaughter!” – Donald J. Trump, 21 Dec 2015
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t-RUMP is CRAZY…period.
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How wonderful to read from Pence that tRump has no higher priorities than the safety and security of American people’. Is this a diversion from the blowout of his support for white supremacists? Will tRump ever get over trying to destroy everything that Obama did?
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Mike Pence: Donald Trump’s new American strategy for Afghanistan will undo past failures
Pence: “Under President Trump, America will not write a blank check for countries that fail to root out the same forces who try every day to kill our people.
President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. Since the very first day of our administration, he has taken decisive action to protect our citizens, our country and our very way of life — and on Monday, President Trump announced a new strategy for addressing threats from Afghanistan and South Asia that will enhance the security of our homeland and protect our people from those who would do us harm…”
Check out this story on USATODAY.com: https://usat.ly/2xmif7J
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So what is the Trump policy . I am a bit confused.
The Afghans have been fighting westerners since Carter was in office .
So what is the strategy that 100,000 Russians who brutality came natural to. . Or 100,000 American troops with sophisticated weaponry ready to strike, almost invisible to the target.
A whopping 4,000 more troupes for a total of 8000, I get it. A secret plan . Here is the secret there is no plan . The plan is not to be out before the election.
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The plan is to increase troops using Eric Prince’s company, was Blackwater, who knows what it is called now, and keep pumping as much money as possible into the industrial/military machine.
War is very good to the wealthy and very deadly for the poor.
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Trump is doing nothing new in Afghanistan. Victory is impossible. We did not “win” when we had 100,000 troops there. We won’t “win” with 8,000
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I am incredibly tired of the amount of money that has been spent in these wars that never end. The trillions could have been used to help people improve their lives. If the US had done that, we would be respected in the world. Trillions in bombs, troops, all sorts of creative killing machines will never win the hearts of those who have lost loved ones.
The media never accurately reports the destruction and sorrow. The military learned from the Vietnam war to not give out too much information. How many civilians have had their livelihoods destroyed and have relatives or friends who have been killed by the US? The US feels remorse every time the death of a US soldier is reported. People in Afghanistan feel the same remorse.
My feeling is, “Stop the killing”. More troops isn’t going to solve anything. More troops is a ‘new’ strategy? 16 years of this is enough. I am sad for our side.
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A traditional military victory in Afghansitan – the “Graveyard of Empire – is impossible, and is probably understood to be so by the more reality-based military planners and strategists in the Pentagon.
The greater likelihood is that 1) we’re remaining there solely to block/interfere with Russian and Chinese efforts to construct a Eurasian transportation and trade bloc, and 2) extract the mineral wealth of the country, specifically the rare-earth minerals upon which digitalization depends. Trump has specifically stated his desire to see that US companies get their share of that.
It’s no different from the bumper stickers we saw during the early phases of the second Iraq War: “How did our oil get under their sand”?
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I agree with Diane. “We did not “win” when we had 100,000 troops there. We won’t “win” with 8,000”. Four thousand more troops is a waste of manpower and money.
This is a bit of news put out by the White House in an email that I got today:
At Breitbart, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg praises and defends President Trump’s speech on his strategy in Afghanistan, writing “our President’s decision reflects an understanding that the promise to Make America Great Again must include cleaning up the mess left behind in Afghanistan from the fits and starts of the past 15 years.
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Doing more of the same: a winning strategy?
More lives lost for nothing
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Putin uses exactly the same technique; his puppet can learn a few things.
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And there’s the whataboutism: What about if President Obama said or did one – just one – of the actions or statements the president has done. The GOP would go ballistic.
Listen carefully – EVERY speech and pronouncement is about him.
“No other president has ever…” not announced troop #s…
“x, y, z happened under Barack Obama…”
“I am the only one in history who…”
“I I I biggest greatest only…”
He doesn’t care about Americans, health care, world peace, North Korea, or anyone or anything except what pronouncement singles him out.
This is not fake news Mr. president – the media just plays your tapes and videos and the words speak for themselves.
HOW can these less informed people blindly applaud anything that comes out of his mouth? He has already turned on them and will sell them out in a heartbeat…. including the education of their kids because these folks’ kids will not go to charters, get vouchers, or get near a private school.
WHAT ABOUT THAT?
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Trump sounds totally unhinged when he isn’t reading from a script. I’m surprised that he has the ability to read from a script.
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The Republican Party Is Enabling an Increasingly Dangerous Demagogue
With every passing day, the stain and responsibility for Trump’s actions stick more lastingly to the Republican establishment.
Read More:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/the-republican-party-is-enabling-an-increasingly-dangerous-demagogue/537723/?utm_source=eb
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