One of the most common forms of Whataboutism is of the form “You criticize X, but other people vaguely politically aligned with you failed to criticize Y.” (assuming for argument that X and Y are different but similar wrongs)
The problem with that is that the only possible sincere answers are necessarily unsatisfying, and it’s hard to gauge their sincerity. Here’s what I see as the basic possibilities.
Y and X are equally bad, my allies are wrong about this [but what are you gonna do about it?]
Y is bad but X is genuinely worse because of …. (can sound like a post hoc justification)
Y and X are equally bad, but I still support my side because the badness of Y is outweighed by the goodness of A, B, etc.
Y is actually not bad because of ….
You are right, Y is terrible, I abandon my allies [and join … what? If Y is disqualifying X surely is too...]
The PCC is a lot more valid when its actually the same person taking inconsistent positions on X and Y. Otherwise your actual interlocutor might not be inconsistent at all but has no plausible way of demonstrating that.
One of the most common forms of Whataboutism is of the form “You criticize X, but other people vaguely politically aligned with you failed to criticize Y.” (assuming for argument that X and Y are different but similar wrongs)
The problem with that is that the only possible sincere answers are necessarily unsatisfying, and it’s hard to gauge their sincerity. Here’s what I see as the basic possibilities.
Y and X are equally bad, my allies are wrong about this [but what are you gonna do about it?]
Y is bad but X is genuinely worse because of …. (can sound like a post hoc justification)
Y and X are equally bad, but I still support my side because the badness of Y is outweighed by the goodness of A, B, etc.
Y is actually not bad because of ….
You are right, Y is terrible, I abandon my allies [and join … what? If Y is disqualifying X surely is too...]
The PCC is a lot more valid when its actually the same person taking inconsistent positions on X and Y. Otherwise your actual interlocutor might not be inconsistent at all but has no plausible way of demonstrating that.