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Field Guide to Mind Control

Whataboutism

Deflect a criticism by pointing at someone else’s wrongdoing.

How it controls you

It changes the subject while feeling like an answer. The original charge is never addressed, only mirrored, and both sides walk away with their teams intact and the question unexamined. Hypocrisy is a real critique. As a dodge, it is a technique.

Spotted in the wild

"but what about the other side"
"they did it first"
Check any article for this technique →
More techniques:
Loaded Language · Name Calling · Appeal to Fear · Manufactured Urgency · Flag Waving · False Dilemma · Manufactured Consensus · Casting Doubt · Thought-Terminating Cliché · Appeal to Authority · Causal Oversimplification · Repetition

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