What's the difference between hypocrisy and whataboutery?
Hypocrisy
Definition:
(n.) The act or practice of a hypocrite; a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one's real character, disposition, or motives; especially, the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion; a simulation of goodness.
Example Sentences:
(1) The UK, France and Germany have been accused of hypocrisy for lobbying behind the scenes to keep outmoded car tests for carbon emissions, but later publicly calling for a European investigation into Volkswagen’s rigging of car air pollution tests .
(2) It created a very ugly atmosphere in society – as I was growing up in politics, I disliked the hypocrisy where people had to conceal their own identity.
(3) I think the heart of good comedy really lives in truth and reacting to the absurdities, hypocrisies, abuses of power in the world.” Late night television is a no longer a glass of warm milk before bed, it’s a lunch buffet And as TV viewership declines and internet virality becomes as important as real-time eyeballs, cable networks might find that topical comedy is a smart, cost-effective way to grab cross-platform attention.
(4) Someone, somewhere, must stand up to the bullying, hectoring hypocrisy of Cameron's "localism" act and his henchman, Pickles, in full "screw democracy" mode.
(5) This gesture goes some way to acknowledging the hypocrisy of an organisation which has sacked over 21,000 staff, while still attempting to pay bumper bonuses to the bosses.
(6) David Cameron has attacked Labour's "rank hypocrisy" in calling for him to boycott the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka as he claimed his visit to the country's war-torn north will help give a voice to the dispossessed.
(7) Isn't this an exercise in the exposure of hypocrisy, rather than the exposure of a world where hypocrisy is impossible?
(8) Labor accused Hockey of hypocrisy given his strong criticisms of the former Gillard government over revenue write-downs.
(9) How dare this unqualified mother of three challenge RGCB orthodoxy or attack the hypocrisy of those who condemned viable neighbourhoods as slums in order to build their own golden city from which anyone with choice escaped?
(10) The second is that almost eight years after voting in the conclave that chose Benedict XVI, Cardinal Keith O'Brien seems too irredeemably tainted by scandal and allegations of hypocrisy to find himself electing any future popes.
(11) It is the England that then prime minister John Major vowed would never vanish in a famous 1993 speech: “Long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and – as George Orwell said – ‘old maids bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist’.” Major was mining Orwell’s wartime essay The Lion and the Unicorn, whose tone was one of reassurance – the national culture will survive, despite everything: “The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies.” Orwell and Major were both asserting the strength of a national culture at times when Britishness – for both men basically Englishness – was felt to be under threat from outside dangers (war, integration into Europe).
(12) Clegg’s comments emerge as the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, accused Cameron and Osborne of “breathtaking hypocrisy” and said he was told during budget talks to look after the workers while the Conservatives looked after the bosses.
(13) He said he had referred the questions which were emailed to him to Lord Justice Leveson, the judge leading the inquiry into press ethics, saying they were an example of "blinding hypocrisy" and warned that he was considering a complaint about the newspaper to the Press Complaints Commission.
(14) Hypocrisy is one word for the motives behind the deployment of the "Peninsula Shield" forces in Bahrain last week.
(15) Hypocrisy and double standards in respect to gender are ingrained in cycling and many other sports but this is hidden in reports of events.
(16) But Oliver listed his projected new team, including Rudy Guiliani and Chris Christie, and noted the hypocrisy.
(17) In a video statement , the group criticised what it said was Europe’s hypocrisy in fortifying its borders in the south just as it celebrated the fall of an old border in the east.
(18) So yes, let’s point out Ryan’s hypocrisy and take him to task on his policies – but let’s do it strategically.
(19) Anti-Trump protesters to descend on NBC headquarters over SNL appearance Read more This weekend, however, the latest leg of the tour has countless Latino organizations and their allies declaring that NBC’s Trump hypocrisy will no longer be tolerated.
(20) In a wide-ranging interview, Wallace also accused Salmond of hypocrisy by portraying his Scottish National party government as a champion of devolution after it argued for even greater tax-raising and borrowing powers for the Scottish parliament while it remains in the UK.
Whataboutery
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) This is far from a cynical exercise in pro-Israeli whataboutery.
(2) But equally, it could be argued that power-sharing has only led to an increase in whataboutery , Northern Irish politics' great gift to the world.
(3) When challenged on the alleged role of Moscow in the murder of journalists, Trump engaged in what is typically known as “ whataboutery ” (or the “look over there!” approach to debate), responding: “Our country does plenty of killing also.” Last year, a delegation of French rightwing MPs visited Russia to fight “disinformation from western media” , and Marine Le Pen , leader of the far-right National Front which was given a multimillion-euro loan from a Russian bank – is a Putin fan.
(4) If the political partialities of your inquisitor lean to the pseudo-left, the whataboutery does not stop there.
(5) May God bless the departed souls and give courage to bereaved families,” the cleric of one unexceptional mosque in a prosperous area of Islamabad told the worshippers, before adding: “May God foil the conspiracies of the Jews and infidels aimed at dividing the Muslims.” Such statements are what Pakistani journalist Ejaz Haider calls “whataboutery”.