If you had been born in some other country ...

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If you had been born in some other country ...

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Published on before 2005


Q: If you had been born in some other country or in some other cultural setting you wouldn't have these ideas, so why should I believe they are valid?

This is really just another example of the ad hominem fallacy, arguing that since I was born in a particular place my ideas must be wrong. It's possible that if I was born in some primitive tribe I might be illiterate, does that mean I can't read now? Or that you can't tell if I can? It's possible that if I were born in Berkeley or Siberia I might have never been exposed to any of the learning I have benefited from on the arts too, but who cares where I was born? What matters here is whether or not what I am saying is true, and that this argument is just a way of avoiding addressing that question.