[cairo_x]

Whataboutism is an old school red-scare term literally coined to describe Soviet disinformation techniques.

I wonder if most people who use the term as an argument know this, or are aware of how it got into their lexicon.

Not only does the term imply one supports one side over the other (in this case Russian trolls), the term implicitly accuses one of being an actual Russian agent..

[EGreg]

Can you post some links about this?

[cairo_x]

Search for 'whataboutism' wiki (and check the rational wiki as well).

> Lexicographers date the first appearance of the variant whataboutism to the 1990s,[1][4] while other historians state that during the Cold War Western officials referred to the Soviet and Russian propaganda strategy by that term.[7]

[0xcde4c3db]

One of the iconic examples, though it predates the popularization of the term, is well-known/documented enough to have its own Wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes