08-03-2003, 02:05 AM
I'm not sure why you're getting on Swiss's case about lack of personal knowledge / expertise.
He's (1) citing an article by someone else, and (2) saying that it intuitively sounds right to him.
Neither of those statements really need any expertise on his part to confirm.
It's the equivalent of me saying "I just read this great article on Robert Moses that I thought was really cool." I'm not expected to be an expert on everything I have an opinion about. Deciding that an article by a more informed person coincides with one's own intuition on a subject ("I had always kinda thought that Robert Moses's highway plans were a bad idea, and now this article explains why") is standard operating procedure in a world where there is not enough time to become an expert on everything.
Similarly, Swiss's apparent thought process of (1) listening to 1-2 GWB speeches and not being impressed, (2) reading an article that seems to explain it, and (3) thinking the article is interesting enough to be linked, doesn't seem to be particularly fallacious (to use your term) to me.
He's (1) citing an article by someone else, and (2) saying that it intuitively sounds right to him.
Neither of those statements really need any expertise on his part to confirm.
It's the equivalent of me saying "I just read this great article on Robert Moses that I thought was really cool." I'm not expected to be an expert on everything I have an opinion about. Deciding that an article by a more informed person coincides with one's own intuition on a subject ("I had always kinda thought that Robert Moses's highway plans were a bad idea, and now this article explains why") is standard operating procedure in a world where there is not enough time to become an expert on everything.
Similarly, Swiss's apparent thought process of (1) listening to 1-2 GWB speeches and not being impressed, (2) reading an article that seems to explain it, and (3) thinking the article is interesting enough to be linked, doesn't seem to be particularly fallacious (to use your term) to me.