Trump 's boat is without direction and taking on water

To The Daily Sun,

I’m sorry if my contribution may appear to some as redundant, but I’d like to reintroduce contributors and readers to the term “Whataboutism”. It is a propaganda technique first used by the Soviet Union (rather ironic) in its dealing with the Western World. When cold war criticisms were leveled at the Soviets, the response would be “what about …” followed by the name of an event or individual in the Western World. It represents a case of appealing to hypocrisy, a logical fallacy that attempts to discredit the opponent’s position by asserting the opponent’s, to act consistently in accordance with that position without directly refuting or disproving the opponent’s initial argument. It’s a simple way to shrug off criticism or even responsibility for any wrongdoing.

Recently, many contributors to the forum have used “Whataboutism” in response to criticism leveled at Trump’s lies. When conservative contributors are questioned and confronted with Trump’s lies, they respond by shifting the topic to the lies Clinton or Obama are alleged to have stated. Whatever Trump does or doesn’t do, these contributors are always willing to yell “what about Clinton”, “What about Obama”, they did or didn’t do that worse.

In defense of Trump’s lies, these conservatives are postulating the logic that, if lies were told by Clinton or Obama, it is perfectly acceptable for Trump to tell lies. They excuse his lies by portraying him as a victim of adversarial “liberals, press and universities”.

A recent contributor defended Trump lies as “differences of conclusion and variance of facts”. I find it ironic that he doesn’t extend that same courtesy to Obama and the Clintons — could it be political?!

There are also those who know Trump is lying but just don’t care — his lies must be defended, because Trump lying and getting away with it reflects turnabout as fair play — Clinton and Obama did it! Every Trump lie, in this view, actually burnishes his image, because his open willingness to lie represents a ruthless unwillingness to conform to expectations of political reality.

Liars lie. It’s what they do. And making excuses for those lies puts his supporters in Trump’s moral boat — a boat without direction and taking on water.

Robert Miller

Alton