You cannot simply dismiss hypocrisy as whataboutism. Apparently you and everyone else throwing around this term would dismiss the common phrase of "look inward first" as whataboutism.
Thats fine. But if you are going to do that, what you should do is say "Yes, the issue you brought up is definitely bad, and I agree with you that it should be solved, and you are 100% right about it. Also, here is another problem that should also be solved".
If you are going to 100% agree with me, and say that I am right for bringing up a certain problem, and also point to a related problem, thats fine.
But if you don't say "Yes you are right. The thing you brought up is very bad, and it should stop", then it comes off as an attempt to dismiss or delegitimize the very important problem that someone previously brought up.
So great. Fine. Maybe the other thing you brought should also be solved. But that does not at all dismiss the original issue and the original issue should still be solved, and the original points that were made are correct.
I am still 100% completely justified, in every way, to bring up the original problem, and if someone is saying that the original problem that was brought up should not be solved, then that person is still completely wrong, regardless of the fact that you brought up a different problem that maybe should be solved.
No, not really. It is perfectly possible to discuss many different issues without having to think of an answer for numerous X, Y, or Z issues that someone else brings up in order to distract you from the point.
The issue is that whenever people do this, they almost always aren't interested in solving the issue. Instead they are looking to dismiss the problem that you brought up, by using whataboutism.
This is the most common way for someone to try and get you to stop caring about an issue. There will always be an excuse that someone can throw at you, so that they can dismiss the problem that you brought up.
> This is very harmful.
The harmful thing is instead the people who are trying to prevent the problems from being solved, by distracting people from the things that they bring up.
> How can the U.S. and its people in good conscience decry other countries' actions
If bad things are happening, I want those bad thing to stop. And I am never going to accept someone pointing to a different bad thing, in order to defend against some other bad thing from happening.
Less bad things should be the goal. And this strategy of whataboutism just distracts from that.