The people you vote kill people at the borders and you are worried about this graffiti
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Original Question
Today I saw a graffiti on the inside wall of a university class, saying:
"The people you vote kill people at the borders and you are worried about this graffiti"
This would make sense only if someone was able to worry about one thing at a time, so I would guess it is an either-or fallacy, but I believe it is a more special case (and a very common one): whenever someone accuses you of a misconduct, find a bigger problem and demand that the other one stops nagging about your misconduct until all the other (bigger) problems have been solved. It reminds me a bit of relative privation but relative privation is about making a situation appear better; it lacks the personal attack, of being a hypocrite for dealing with (relatively) minor problems.
I was wondering, is there a more specific name to describe those kinds of arguments?
Answers
2In addition to what is written in other responses, this is the fallacy of diversion. [Fallacy of Diversion is when you divert the discussion to something more comfortable when you have no answer to the topic at hand.] And, likely, the Fallacy of Selective Attention. [Fallacy of Selective Attention occurs if one focuses on specific aspects of the argument while ignoring other parts. This usually results in irrelevant rebuttals, straw man fallacy, and unnecessarily drawn-out arguments.]
Let's put this in a clear argument form. I think the conclusion is clearly implied.
1) The people you vote (for) kill people at the borders
2) You are worried about this graffiti
C) Therefore, you should not mind graffiti
Besides clearly being a non sequitur , having elements of the ones you mentioned, resembling Whataboutism, I think it is more of a rhetorical device than a fallacy, although the statement/argument itself is unreasonable in what it implies. The point is to bring attention to an issue of importance (according to the arguer) and one's priorities.
For rhetorical devices, I would say the best response, rather than accusing them of a fallacy, is to use their own argument against them. In this case, just find a bigger issue: "The world is just one button push away from nuclear annihilation, and you are worrying about some people getting killed at the borders?"
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