[pessimizer]

> Calling people idiots (as OP did) is unnecessary, but do we really need whataboutism?

Let's say I propose cars as an alternative to motorcycles, and you respond by citing the enormous numbers of deaths from car accidents. Am I doing a whataboutism if I mention that motorcycles have accidents too?

edit: "whataboutism" is an anticommunist propaganda term meant to defend segregation, but to the extent that it has a meaning, that meaning is: When I mention thing A that you do, it's a distraction when you mention totally unrelated thing B that I do. It's not when I criticize you over doing thing A, and you mention that I also do thing A.

[smcl]

Your edit contains a really nice concise definition of what is and what isn't whataboutism. Sadly I find that it's often deployed as a defense like "you can't accuse me of X, I accused you of X first!" and it's tiresome