It really irks me when apologists (lately for politicians) engage in "whataboutism". Like, "So yeah, he ordered a few thousand dissidents to work camps, but what about when he built that railroad? Fosters commerce, sharing of culture..." Just because you did some good things, it doesn't mean you didn't also do bad things or that the bad things should be excused. It's so frustrating as a rhetorical tool (like, think butter knife in open-heart surgery) because there's pretense of being "balanced" and "fair-minded" when the speaker really means you should write-off the bad. Zero it out. Focus on that positive.
It's the same kind of slow-witted skulduggery as in "letting the past be the past" when the consequences of what happened "in the past" *are still actively causing problems*. Like, "So yeah, he burned some forests--" the forests have been burned! They're gone. They're *still* gone.
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