Kneejerk Objection No. 8a (To a claim of individual
rights):
"But that argument was used by a (choose): racist, fascist, communist, Nazi, Marxist, socialist, hater, nationalist, monarchist, mercantilist, feudalist, etc. etc. etc., and therefore must be invalid and/or a 'code word' for a wicked hidden agenda." Answer to No. 8a:
And to arbitrarily conclude that the argument is a
"code word" for an evil hidden agenda is itself a use of the
ad
hominem fallacy (attacking the person and not the argument), in
an attempt to change the subject entirely by bringing in a bizarre, overtly
hostile red
herring attack out of left field (which actually should call into question
the motives of the attackers, not the attacked).
Answer to No. 8b: What??? You mean
you really can't believe someone would take a position based on
principles??? Would that be because you would never
do so yourself???
This is not only another subject-changing ad
hominem attack on the person and not the argument, but it says even
more about the attackers — that either:
Those who insist "every man has his price," after all, are ultimately talking only about themselves, and they're irrationally hoping any depravity found in others might somehow serve as absolution for their own. Often it never occurs to them as big-government advocates (or, if it does, they refuse to accept the idea), that people really can and do advocate private solutions to problems, and even passionately oppose government solutions as a matter of principle. And that representatives of private industry can and do tell the truth (and it takes WORK for reporters to tell which ones do and which ones don't) and that those whose life or livelihood could be crippled by the government solutions would actually seek out such advocates of non-governmental solutions, whether from industry, academia or the professions, and actually choose to have them and not their enemies speak for them (duh). Of course, big-government advocates almost never object when recipients of government benefits are offered opportunities to speak on behalf of government, by far the biggest special-interest group there is! |
the Vast Scholarship of Liberty.................................. |
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