Pity the poor Republicans! A terrible disease is running rampant throughout their ranks. It’s called whataboutism, and it has become especially acute since Trump pardoned the January 6 rioters.
A case in point is Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN). In a recent interview with CCN anchor Jim Acosta, Burchett refused to say whether or not he agreed with Trumps’s decision to grant a blanket pardon to those who assaulted police officers and forced their way into the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Burchett instead took refuge in false equivalencies. He brought up Biden’s pardons and the riots that have plagued our cities in recent years. "Police officers were murdered. Courthouses were burned, over 22 police cars were burned,” he said. “Yet no one went to jail for that." (Jan. 22)
The trouble with whataboutism is that it’s intractable. Don’t even try to administer a dose of the truth. As the Acosta-Burchett interview illustrates, those suffering from this affliction are generally incapable of recognizing—a la “Sesame Street”—that “one of these things is not like the other.” A better treatment is to inject this this old adage into the conversation: “Two wrongs don’t make a right!” It’s not a cure, but it will enable you to get away before you succumb to whataboutism. --S/f, EFP
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