Masks, hiding identities, and fraudulent whataboutism
It is not my responsibility to find an example of "the other side" doing something bad every single time I point out a specific behavior.
Person A: This action is inappropriate and should not be condoned.
Person B: Well, what about this other thing? I did not see you condemning that, so you must be a hypocrite.
In any kind of political discussion, whataboutism is often employed as a means of distraction from something that is inconvenient. When someone does not want to address something, they derail the conversation to something else.
The most dishonest and dishonorable form of whataboutism is when it is combined with lies. When I said on social media that people wearing masks to a political protest since 2023 are not doing so for fear of disease but to hide their identities, I was sent pictures of January 6 protesters wearing masks. I must be a hypocrite, because I did not condemn this. Of course, I did condemn the actions of the January 6 rioters, immediately after it happened and earlier this year. The accusation of "hypocrisy," in addition to being a red herring logical fallacy, is completely fabricated.
Even if I had specifically defended people wearing masks on January 6 (which I did not) the world was completely different in 2021 than was two years later, and especially today. January 2021 was during the pandemic, and most people had resumed their normal pre-pandemic lives by the middle of 2022. The emergency was declared over in May of 2023. COVID-19 has mutated to become more transmissible and less deadly, and we have effective treatments for the virus as well as vaccines. We have also learned more about masks in the years since 2020, knowing that masks are more effective as source control than they are at preventing infection.
What about masking to avoid sickening other people, whether with COVID-19, influenza or the common cold, if you are experiencing symptoms? Here is a better solution: Stay home if you are symptomatic with a respiratory virus. It is not always possible to stay home from work, but going to a political protest while sick is never necessary. Pretending that masking is the only solution, and avoiding other pandemic mitigation measures, shows either a lack of seriousness about pandemic mitigation or outright dishonesty. It is almost certainly the latter.
But the basic principle is this: It is not my responsibility to find an example of "the other side" doing something bad every single time I point out a specific behavior. That is a childish reaction, and adults should be capable of rational argumentation without demanding "fairness." It is not only Leftists who do this, of course. I was fraudulently accused of being hypocritical after January 6 by not calling out bad behavior by Black Lives Matter. That accusation was also completely fabricated, as I had said in a letter to the editor in July 2020 that riots should be stopped with "overwhelming force."
Everyone, grow up. Address arguments and facts directly, without whining "he did it toooooooooooooooooooo!!" like little children. Yes, hypocrisy exists, and should be called out. But far too often whataboutism is not a response to legitimate hypocrisy, but as a red herring or as character assassination. Christians, especially, should never engage in the latter, remembering God's warnings all throughout Scripture that He hates lies.