What it is
Dismissing a claim because the speaker does not live up to it.
In the wild
You cannot tell me to quit smoking, you smoke too.
How to answer it
Grant the hypocrisy and ask whether the advice is still correct.
Attacks on the source
Tu quoque
Also called You too, appeal to hypocrisy
In depth
Origin and naming
Latin for 'you too'. It is counted as a species of ad hominem: instead of meeting the argument, the reply charges the arguer with inconsistency. The hypocrisy may be real — and the advice may still be right.
More places it shows up
A doctor tells a patient to cut salt; the patient replies, 'You eat fast food between shifts, I have seen the wrappers.'
A teammate says the pull request is too large to review safely; the author answers, 'Yours last sprint was twice this size.'
A neighbor asks you to leash your dog near the playground; you answer, 'Yours dug up my flowerbed all April.'
A finance minister urges spending cuts at a press conference, and the first question is, 'Didn't your government widen the deficit last year?' — the proposal itself is never discussed.
How to spot it
- Notice when the reply starts with 'you' instead of 'that claim'.
- Notice when catching hypocrisy is treated as winning the point.
- Notice when conceding 'yes, the speaker is inconsistent' changes nothing about the truth of the advice.