Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mason240 3833 days ago
>Do you think your life would just go on without any troubles at all if government suddenly disappeared?

The classic "I'm going to pretend your criticism of one part of government means you want to completely abolish all government" strawman.

1 comments

I'd agree with you, but vixen99's post does not actually articulate an awareness of criticizing a particular part of the government. There's talk about "dependence on the government" by 70% of the public (probably the incorrect number according to what they really mean, but let's go with it). My point is really that this statement is meaningless because it's really 100% of the public who depends on the government when you think of it.

For example: people who work for recording companies undeniably depend on government handouts for their financial survival (think copyright law). Do you think vixen99 intended to include this group of people or not?

So my criticism, which you unfortunately missed (because I admittedly could have been clearer about it) is that the language used to attempt to discuss an argument is already wrong.

The intended argument itself may have merit, but as long as you talk about it in a misleading way you're not helping the debate.