Tu quoque

From Hobson's Choice

"You also" argument. This is usually a logical fallacy.

Typically it is encountered in arguments over which of two political entities is worse. For example, a person points out that the CIA committed atrocities in Honduras during the 1980's. His rightwing then insists that the Soviet regime killed more people than Hitler. The subtext is that the first item is negated, or justified, by the second item.

While the rejoinder has absolutely no relevance to the initial allegation, it is quite effective, partly because then the initial critic is put on the defensive, and partly because it's so shockingly stupid.

An even sillier example is when repulsive aspects of one's country's history are mentioned, and one then points out that something similar occurred elsewhere. In most cases, this is worse because it's not merely irrelevant, and it's not merely false (mostly), but the person making the secondary allegation is typically obligated to believe it with sectarian zeal.

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