100% true. "Both sides" arguments exist SOLELY to deflect from awful things done by Republicans, or detract from positive things done by Democrats.
Not once have I seen it deployed for any other purpose.
Edit for the pedants: I should probably have not led with "100% true" before the sentence where I clearly stated my position. Although I think the delta between what I wrote after that and what is in OP is a difference without a distinction, if some of you want to feel like you really got me, you go right ahead.
Criticism of Democrats is perfectly reasonable in safe Dem districts. Like Diane Feinstein. But at this point, literally any Democrat is better than literally any Republican, so if Dem control is in doubt, stick with blue no matter who.
Besides, we have a whole primary specifically to criticize Dem candidates. That's when we should be bringing this shit up.
There's this exhaustingly dumb conspiracy theory that Bernie somehow had very broad popular support despite all polls saying otherwise. Bernie didn't have the numbers.
Though blacks, Hispanics, women and moderate voters consistently support either Democratic candidate when faced with Trump as the Republican alternative, there are two significant groups that Sanders wins over by much larger margins than Clinton and help him beat Trump by double digits: Republicans under 30 and Independents who do not lean toward either party.
I highly doubt these Republicans (and Republicans but too ashamed to admit it) would have done anything other than fall in line like they always have during election season.
Yes. Demonizing people not because of who they are, but based on your prejudiced assumptions, is in fact bad, it turns out.
Trump winning and full on reducing the United States to a fascist ethnostate
Are you trying to get people not to take you seriously? Because insane over-the-top exaggeration like this is a very strong strategy toward that end, if so.
Cool, let me play "guess what this probably disingenuous person would consider evidence". I'm sure that would be productive and yield fruitful results.
You can look at the sea of political discussion on social media and see for yourself.
I very clearly related my own experience. You don't need to agree with me, and I don't demand that you do.
If you don't agree. (and I'm guessing you don't) I doubt very much that any singular example I link is going to change your mind, and I don't care enough about changing it to link a bunch of them for you. I frankly don't know how it's possible to engage in these sorts of discussions online and not observe this exact phenomenon, though.
my guess is that no one has ever said "both sides are bad. i hope by spreading this message, voter turnout is supressed." if such a thing has happened, it's not on me to provide evidence to support your claim. i simply disbelieve your claim, and will not believe it unless i have evidence to the contrary.
the person in question simply refuses to believe the argument, ignoring any evidence given. It is not so much a fallacious tactic in argument as it is a refusal to argue in the proper sense of the word. The method used in this fallacy is either to make assertions with no consideration of objections or to simply dismiss objections by calling them excuses, conjecture, anecdotal, etc. or saying that they are proof of nothing, all without actually demonstrating how the objections fit these terms. It is similar to the ad lapidem fallacy, in which the person rejects all the evidence and logic presented, without providing any evidence or logic that could lead to a different conclusion.