Quote:
Originally Posted by BoLevi
"Whataboutism" is a (poor) argument people use against a position. I'm not arguing against anything - in fact I'm largely agreeing with the poster in his claim that how we use labels (both for ourselves and others), can significantly impact the conversation.
Or do you just scream "whataboutism" at things randomly because you read a meme with it previously?
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To be fair those were pretty piss poor comparables.
BLM is an organisation that aligned themselves with a concept which, at the time, was controversial (still largely is to a section of the population) and did it to promote the importance of that concept. Because they’re an organization, like any organization, they’re fairly criticised all the time. The right wing largely demonise the organization and deny the validity of the concept.
Anti-Fa is a label for a loose, unorganised group of anti-fascist activists. Their concept is entirely non-controversial on any level: fascists are bad. Because they aren’t organised in any way, however, the right wing have taken to labelling any rioters, looters, violence, etc. as “anti-fa” and because there is no actual organization to attach it to, it doubles as a direct critique of the concept.
BLM weren’t being “clever” like the right wing were in labelling any random bad act as “anti-fascist.” The two scenarios are wildly different, though I’m sure we’d all love if it were true that “black lives matter too” were as uncontroversial and widely accepted as “fascism is bad.”