THE CENSUS

Our leaders and their propagandists seemed miffed that some people seemed to be slow to comply to the mailed census form. To such people, it is a really annoying situation. They pretend to be calm, rational people, but their commentary betrays this guise.

Such an instance occurred today, as I was driving and listening to my usual traffic & weather station. One of their commentators began by mentioning the census form that had been mailed 0ut to every known household. Striking an air of surprise, he then stated that 2/3 of the households in Virginia had not yet complied. His indignation rising, he then opined that these were probably the same people who complain about their constitutional rights being lessened or threatened.

Although this hypothesis was stated without adducing any evidence, thus amounting to an ipse dixit argument, he inveighed against the paranoia exhibited by these tardy-filing Virginians. Here his voice had risen, and he had informed it with indignant emotion. Therefore, to his original, unimpressive argument he now added what amounted to argumentum ad hominem, meaning an argument against the person as opposed to what the person said, or argued. In this instance, he was denouncing the "paranoid" folly of 2/3 of Virignians, roughly, each of whom was guilty of the same charge. The fact that his argument was an informal fallacy could not possibly sway him. He was now lost in his fantasy of willful non-compliance. He fumed at the absurdity of Virginians claiming their constitutional rights had been violated when the constitution specifically stated that a census must be taken every ten years, wherein the number of citizens would be ascertained. Talk about setting up a strawman issue!

Personally, I have no idea why not all Virginians have complied. Usually, there are reasons, such as concentrating on the tax filing, Spring fever, and on and on.

Having "school-marmed" all listening Virginians on the fact that the census form was composed of only ten questions, this commentator petulantly informed them that being paranoid about the census was not a "core value."(The "core" may have been spelled differently but sounded according to the idiom.)

If setting up a non sequitur and then ranting about it is informed commentary, then I believe that such commentary will be ignored by Virginians, who will direct their attention at a sudden stretch of very pleasant weather and enjoy it. That is a Virginian's "core value." Being Hectored by Census Bureau "shills" is not.