bothsidesism

plural bothsidesisms · alternative both-sidesism · alternative both sidesism

1. uncountableusuallyA tendency to treat all policy debates as if the opposing sides present equally strong arguments, or are equally valid or equally dangerous.

   Near-synonym: view from nowhere

   3 more examples

   And the reason is that too much of the news media still can't break with bothsidesism — the almost pathological determination to portray politicians and their programs as being equally good or equally bad, no matter how ludicrous that pretense becomes.

   2016 July 18, Paul Krugman, “Both Sides Now?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 22 Dec 2020

   This is not the same as the dreaded bothsidesism, where you assign equal value to opposing positions and split the difference.

   2017 September 21, Justin Fox, “Being Sure You're Right Makes You Weaker”, in Bloomberg View, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2025

   Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls.

   2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2021

   Synonyms: false balance, view from nowhere