Yes they didn't call out others for different stuff but it's just whataboutisms it still doesn't change the tweets.
What you call whataboutism the argentine judicial system calls equality before the law.
And yes, the law and common sense dictate that what Matera did is wrong (and illegal) but what you are missing is common practices. It is common practice to let these things go. They are non-issues. And i am not talking about a regular joe. I am talking the current president and vice president tweeting stuff that is at par with what Matera wrote. Not a single charge against them. Every single Argentine has read them.
But when Matera does it after DM's death, you have the Director of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism asking for an investigation.
If you see a sign that says Max 100, and i tell a foreigner that someone was going at 110 and that's what i am penalizing him, it makes sense. If you see that every single day everyone goes at at 120 and no one is penalized, not so much.
It doesn't make what Matera did right. I think i was the first in this forum to bring it up and i said it was terrible and inexcusable. What i cant help myself is asking why him (other than the fact that he wrote that), why now?
Argentina's politics, regardless of side or inclinations, are 90% diversion and blameshifting. Maradona's funeral was a disaster. Rubber bullets, riot police with water cannons, the lot. We've had closed schools since March, people dying in hospitals are not allowed to say goodbye to their loved ones, both policies in the name of sanitary reasons, while t the same time the government organized a one million people marching funeral where no social distancing whatsoever is observed. The hooligans of every single team, from every division from every competition in the country, were or tried to be there.
They took the government building. This is not a euphemism. The president had to be evacuated in a helicopter, the vice president had to escape through an underground passage to adjacent buildings and some of the ministers had to barricade themselves in their offices. Let me say it again: hooligans jumped the fence and took the house of the executive power in Argentina.
The government needed to put the focus somewhere else and the pumas actions last weekend gave them the perfect way in against the perfect enemy.
This is not the act of people who care about human rights and are after Matera for what he did. This is a deliberate act to change the talking points and move the spotlight away from the government.
Does this make what Matera did right? Course not. He is/was an idiot. But it sheds light on why he is being targeted and how unfair people are towards him.
You don't want your dodgy tweets from when you are 18 dragged up for political point scoring?
True. The question then becomes why does a tweet like that cost a player his position under the banner of "you cant represent the country with those views" while the incumbent president and vice president of the bloody country have equivalent tweets. And this is not a tu quoque fallacy. This is the equivalent of sending all your armed forces to chase someone with a knife while everyone else is playing target practice with bazookas on the neighbourhood square. Congruence is important when it comes to the law. So does equality.
And the timing. You tell me this comes out of the blue last week, that someone fine-combed his tweets after the pumas won, and i'd say you have a point. A good point.
But this came to light only after DM's death. They needed a target, the pumas actions gave them a way in and Matera's tweets enough ammo to burry him for weeks. And he is the perfect target. Rich background, private school, rugby player, didn't pay homage to DM the way it was deemed by powers that be. They will make an example of him. They will make him the flag bearer of what anti-Argentines are.
Let me rephrase. I think what he did was terrible but i don't think what he will go through as punishment fits the crime. They will massacre him. His only chance of having a semi-normal life now is to live abroad.
