The distinction I find most useful: pointing out inconsistency is legitimate criticism. Deflecting a specific claim by raising an unrelated one is not.
"Yes, but what about what they did in 2015?"
The 2015 event may be real and may be worse. Neither fact addresses the claim on the table. The conversation moves, which is the point — deflection is a change of subject dressed as an argument.
What makes it effective is that it feels like accountability. The person raising it appears to be demanding consistency, when they are actually preventing an answer.
The test I use: if the original claim were fully conceded, would the "what about" still be raised? If yes, it is a separate topic and can wait. If no, it was deflection.
This one seems to be getting more common, or I am noticing it more. Does anyone have a sense of whether it has actually increased, or whether we just have a name for it now?
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