And an American ought to be able to criticize those things and call for peace without having to list every evil thing America has ever done first. And the evil things that America has done shouldn't prevent individual Americans from calling out evils that they see.

Broadly, I agree with this and I can see this point of view. "What does America's evil have to do with it? I thought we were talking about Russia?"

There are several things which widened my perspective on discussions like these, though.

1. Oftentimes, America's evils have a lot to do with it. With regards to the current Ukraine war, the US and NATO have been ramping up aggression against Russia for years prior to the current invasion. The 2014 Maidan was a far-right initiative closely watched and de facto backed by the US, like in Chile, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and countless others before. The fighting that this kicked off in the Donbas region has killed more than 10 000 people since then. What I've seen too often is this sort of historical context be waved off as "whataboutism", as though the direct material reasons for the current situation were irrelevant.

2. The point is often (or at least, it should be) to get people to think more critically about their media. The double standard constantly being applied to other countries is meaningful and worth scrutiny. Our western sources have the inherent privilege of being considered trustworthy and not propaganda, and from those sources we hear about how any foreign or dissident media is propaganda and therefore untrustworthy. This is a dangerous sort of thinking to internalize, because all media is propaganda, including the western sources. The end result - which is what this so-called "whataboutism" is often trying to bring attention to - is predictable: the typical US media consumer will see other countries have their history exaggerated, distorted and outright fabricated while the atrocities of the US are downplayed, quietly mentioned if at all. What we are told about other countries by our supposedly unbiased and reliable media often comes with a massive conflict of interest attached. (Further reading: Manufacturing Consent by Herman and Chomsky, and Inventing Reality by Parenti)