Tu quoque

What it is

Answers a criticism by pointing out that the critic does, or once did, the same thing. The critic's hypocrisy may be real, but it does not make the criticism wrong.

Related

• Ad hominem fallacy
  Tu quoque is a special case of ad hominem that answers a criticism by attacking the critic's own conduct.
• Whataboutism fallacy
  Whataboutism is tu quoque stretched to any other wrong, answering a criticism by raising someone else's faults.
• Special pleading fallacy
  Tu quoque points out the critic's inconsistency, while special pleading excuses one's own; both are about who is held to which standard.

References

• Wikipedia: Tu quoque en.wikipedia.org
• Your Logical Fallacy Is: Tu quoque yourlogicalfallacyis.com
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

More in “Attacking the person or the source”