What about this?

“I know about what [this person] did, but what about [what someone else] did?”

That’s probably a sentence you’ve heard some form of as of late. It seems as if there’s been a constant stream of scandals lately that offend one group or the next, but more than anything you seem to see people trying to take the blame off of one group or person, only to question the motives or behaviors of another unrelated person or group.

That’s called “whataboutism,” the shift of focus from one event to another seemingly unrelated event.

The best example would be the semi-recent scandals of Roseanne and Samantha Bee. Roseanne said something heinous and got sacked in response. Then television personality Samantha Bee said something heinous, although arguably, to a lesser degree than Roseanne and didn’t suffer the same consequences.

So what about that? Why is one event punishable, and the other isn’t?

Well, in this case like many other cases that whataboutism seems to creep into, the issues are generally not all that related.

In this case Roseanne said something deplorable and racist. While Bee said something completely uncouth and offensive, she did not manage to strike a nerve with an entire group of people. Not exactly equal offenses means there likely won’t be equal punishments.

But, this isn’t about either of those women or what they said. Whataboutism is popping up in nearly every conversation we hear these days.

“Trump did this,” one person will say.

“But, what about Hillary’s emails?” the other person might reply.

Shifting focus off of one terrible thing onto another usually unrelated thing, just plain doesn’t make much sense.

It smacks of he said-she said; rubber and glue and the blame game. In short, it’s juvenile.

If we have to divert to someone else’s mistakes or crimes to win an argument, then we are not winning that argument. If we think we can prove someone’s innocence in any matter based on what someone else may have done wrong, then we are not proving anything.

Debate is natural, and in this day and age, prevalent. But, if we are resorting to mudslinging just to get a rise out of people from another group of belief, then we aren’t accomplishing much.

So, what about that?