Whataboutism: The Fine Art of Avoiding the Blame You Earned”

I must tip my hat—if I wore one—to the Trumpian method of answering questions. A journalist might ask, “Sir, why did your administration do X?” And quicker than a greased weasel on a slip’n’slide, the answer is, “Well, what about Hillary’s emails? What about Obama? What about windmills killing birds?”

It’s a masterclass in verbal dodgeball. Never answer the question at hand when you can launch a rhetorical boomerang instead. I dare say, if the Titanic were going down and Trump was at the helm, he’d point at the iceberg and say, “What about the Lusitania?”

Now, one might expect such maneuvers to be laughed off the stage or at least fact-checked into oblivion. But no. His faithful following—God bless their hearts, every last poorly-informed one—nod along as if he’s reciting the Constitution itself. Of course, many wouldn’t recognize the Constitution if it bit them square on the ballot.

You see, it doesn’t matter what the question is, so long as the answer sticks it to “the libs,” involves a conspiracy, or sounds vaguely like something Uncle Larry forwarded in a chain email from 2009. Intellectual honesty? That’s for suckers who read books without pictures.

So next time you hear “What about…?” just know it’s not an answer. It’s a smoke bomb lobbed by someone who’s either cornered or counting on you not to notice. And sadly, in many cases, they’re right.

Julie Bolejack, MBA

P.S. Today’s topic inspired by listening to Trump administration‘s interviews on Sunday shows. Mr. Homan, Border Czar, in this moment I’m pointing all my fingers at you. GEESH