Quote of the Day (Laurence Rees, on a Prior Use of Political Deflection)

“[D]eflection [was] akin to modern ‘whataboutism.’ When confronted with the Holocaust they [leading former Nazis] voiced a series of blatantly false equivalences, such as the firebombing of Hamburg or colonial injustices, dismissing the charges as 'victor's justice.' This allowed them to label the Allies as hypocrites, reinforcing a belief in their victimhood.”— English historian and documentary filmmaker Laurence Rees interviewed by Danny Bird, “The Idea That There’s a Widespread Movement to Learn From History or to Understand It Meaningfully is False,” BBC History, February 2025

For the contemporary resort to “whataboutism” or “deflection,” please see Mona Charen’s June 2025 article in The Bulwark.

(The image accompanying this post shows former Nazi high officials who were defendants in the postwar Nuremberg trials.)