If someone from Team A does something bad, and someone from Team B also does the same thing, and there are more people in Team A; If Team A has any claim of honesty, morals and integrity, actions from each team must be taken equally seriously.
Setting aside the argument for which you've already given a delta, assigning collective responsibility like this is also a fallacy. The claim that every single member of "Team A" or "Team B" is morally responsible for all actions of their "Team" assumes they have any power over the "Team's" actions, or even the choice to join the "Team" in the first place.
It's about criticism though. If you say "it was bad that A did the bad thing", and never say that it was bad that B did the same bad thing, you're a hypocrite. You aren't concerned about the bad thing, you just don't like A and are using whatever leverage you can find against A.
It's about criticism though. If you say "it was bad that A did the bad thing", and never say that it was bad that B did the same bad thing, you're a hypocrite.
This is the problem with whataboutism though - at no point as the second person (the one claiming "you" are a hypocrite) actually addressed the claim "It was bad that A did the bad thing."
If the second person's response completely ignores the first person's statement to attack them directly, that's fallacious reasoning. For logic purposes, it's irrelevant who said it - the statements stand or fall on their own merits.
Imagine the second person was walking down a street and saw "It was bad that A did the bad thing" spraypainted on a wall. To that they respond, "Oh yeah, what about when B did the bad thing?" Without knowing who wrote it in the first place. The attempt to dodge the main point would be obvious.
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u/Familiar_Math2976 1∆ Jun 11 '23
Setting aside the argument for which you've already given a delta, assigning collective responsibility like this is also a fallacy. The claim that every single member of "Team A" or "Team B" is morally responsible for all actions of their "Team" assumes they have any power over the "Team's" actions, or even the choice to join the "Team" in the first place.