Comrade, we all know lead poisoning and the need for safety gear are capitalist propaganda! Now, get back in the mines! Production must increase 50% this year, and your state-appointed union representative says it can!
Capital successfully fought to put lead into American's blood and lungs for a century after it was known to be poison. To this day they're still fighting to keep it there.
EDIT: based on another commenter, OP's claim isn't even factual.
And it took the US until 1996 (after fall of USSR)? Not to mention that it was capitalism (General Motors) that spread the hoax about leaded gasoline being safe, under the guise of scientific research in 1921.
Okay? And? The USSR was the center of a massive empire and exploited the hell out of that empire. They definitely had the resources to be the world's scientific runner up.
Nevertheless, the Soviet Union took
effective action to protect the population from lead exposure; it
banned lead-based (white lead) paint and it banned the sale of
leaded gasoline in some cities and regions.
While leaded gasoline was introduced in the 1920s in the
United States, it was not until the 1940s that leaded gasoline was
introduced in the Soviet Union (5). In the 1950s, the Soviet Un-
ion became the first country to restrict the sale of leaded gaso-
line; in 1956, its sale was banned in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev,
Baku, Odessa, and tourist areas in the Caucasus and Crimea, as
well as in at least one of the “closed cities” of the nuclear weap-
ons complex (6, 7). The motivation for the bans on leaded gaso-
line is not entirely clear, but factors may have included Soviet
research on the effects of low-level lead exposure (8), or sup-
port from Stalin himself (5). In any event, the bans on leaded
gasoline in some areas prevented what could have been signifi-
cant population lead exposure. In the United States and other
OECD countries, leaded gasoline has been identified as one of
the largest sources of lead exposure (9, 10).
Lead-based paint is another potentially significant source of
population lead exposure.
Bonus: a great example of capital at work,
Along with a number of other coun-
tries, in the 1920s the Soviet Union adopted the White Lead
Convention, banning the manufacture and sale of lead-based (white
lead) paint (11). In the United States, however, the National
Paint, Oil and Varnish Association successfully opposed the ban,
and lead-based paint was not banned in the United States until
1971 (12).
I like how tankies conveniently forget that Marxism is just as authoritarian, just as evil, just as violent, and just as failed (in both theory and practice) as fascism. Actually, Marxism has a greater death toll than fascism. It is the ideology of scum. Tankies and neo nazis are the same level of insufferable trash.
The first commenter is talking a hypothetical scenario of socialism being bad, so the second commenter (the one you responded to) responded with actual example of that same hypothetical scenario happening, but except by a capitalist power (the US). I don't think your response makes sense at all here.
No, his response is calling out the whataboutism fallacy. The US doing something bad does not in any way, shape, or form make socialism any less shitty. It's poking fun at the delusional people who still think it's a good ideology despite the overwhelming evidence.
No, you're just an idiot. Whataboutism is simply a fallacy. It doesn't infer anything outside of inconsistent logic. If you feel threatened by it then it just shows that you're disingenuous.
You clearly don't understand what the fallacy is if you're actually dumb enough to post an article to try and justify it. Here's a quick run down for your own benefit. Whataboutism is the act or practice of responding to an accusation of wrongdoing by claiming that an offense committed by another is similar or worse (This is the Merriam Webster definition). There are three reasons why this is fallacious:
The "what about" part is irrelevant to the original statement or argument. By dismissing the original point and entirely focusing entirely on the "what about" part, the person gets to use the "what about" as misdirection to avoid directly addressing what was already said. If you know your fallacies well, you would know that this sounds eerily familiar to the red herring fallacy. Not exactly the same, but very close.
It implies that because entity B did something just as bad or worse, that justifies entity A doing the same thing... when that's not the case. If I stole a bike three years 3 years ago, that doesn't justify you stealing a bike now. You criticizing me for stealing the bike 3 years ago doesn't make your criticism wrong even if you stole a bike this morning, but it also doesn't justify you stealing the bike. The point is that both actions are wrong, each entity is responisble for it's own actions. One doesn't justify, excuse, or negate the other.
The whataboutism fallacy is a variant of the Tu Quouque fallacy (that's not a bonus, that's literally what it is) which is a subsection of the ad hominem argument. An ad hom becomes fallacious when an a character attack is used in place of an actual argument. Which is what happens with whataboutism. The person using it is replacing an actual argument with a charged accusation of hypocrisy and nothing more, which is basically just a character attack.
In this case, the OP of this comment thread made a hypothetical scenario poking fun at the authoritarianism, poor working conditions, and the corruption that is so often found in socialist states. You can agree or disagree with that statement, but if you want to make rebuttal against it, you have to actually address it. The second commenter in this thread did not address it. Instead he brought up a random point about American companies promoting lead. Not only is his comment an irrelevant non-sequitur, but it doesn't disprove the point that OP was trying to make. That second commenter is clearly a Marxist who got offended by the point that the OP made, and so he quickly resorted to the "what about the US" fallback tactic to both avoid addressing the point that was actually made and to pull a weak "gotcha". It's the ol' classic "oh yeah? but look at the US is bad therefore Marxism is good/not as bad/excused/justified in doing shitty thing". It's inconsistent logic.
Then again, Marxism is truly a brain dead ideology. Without propaganda about the US, the entire school of thought would collapse. What is there left to a firmly failed ideology that failed in both theory and practice? Nothing.
wow you sound like an expert in logical fallacies, you must have studied them really hard.
Can you put the fallacious statement you identified in this thread into a logical statement, and then explain how it's fallacious? Feel free to use formal symbols!
It would really help me understand the fallacy, and it must be easy for you to do as an expert.
Whataboutism claims are a good sign of pseudo intellectuals dog whistling to attract mob attention, usually a last resort card played by people when they never have good discussion or argument skills.
Calling out whataboutism is perfectly acceptable when it is being used regardless of its origins.
It is in no way a logical fallacy and in fact the use of whataboutism is itself a logical fallacy.
The flaw in gorilladrum's argument is that the hypothetical example demonstrates the flaws in that specific situation and does not address problems in socialism as a whole yet they suggest it dismisses the ideology completely.
That's literally whataboutism, I criticized people using the vocabulary of "whataboutism" and then you said "but whatabout people who are doing whataboutism!"
To be clear, I dont believe whataboutism is a fallacy, but you do, so why are you doing it?
And this isn't whataboutism (not that it matters). The first commenter ridiculed socialism by using a hypothetical scenario. The second commenter showed with evidence this hypothetical scenario is actually real under capitalism.
I have formulated this little definition for a couple years now.
Whataboutism claims are a good sign of pseudo intellectuals dog whistling to attract mob attention, usually a last resort card played by people when they never have good discussion or argument skills.
Marxism is so easy to destroy, but the reality is that modern day Marxism literally cannot exist without fallacies and propaganda. The ideology is so shallow that it can't stand on its own merits.
Lol Marxists calling anybody an idiot is peak irony. You're subhuman trash. You're just as bad, if not worse than nazis. You're just as hateful, violent, ignorant, extreme, and irrational as nazis. You're ideology is just as failed, just as murderous, and just as delusional. The scum of the Earth trying claim moral superiority is comical.
You definitely sound like a sane individual. I didn't even propose anything lol. How is it wrong to think greedy people should be kept down for the benefit of society?