Officials in Texas are casting blame on the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to forecast catastrophic flooding that has killed at least 27 people. NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy, losing approximately 600 staffers. After the cuts, the agency—which was already understaffed—began to prepare to offer “degraded” forecasting services, facing “severe shortages” of meteorologists, according
Well, the dismantling of the NOAA, the lack of local regulations on construction and zoning, the lack of land management policies, the lack of education and preparedness all seem to disproportionately affect Republican voting communities. This is a failure of the blueprint.
Sure, go ahead and put words in my mouth. Ad hominem is always in fashion. Those kids would be alive if their parents and communities did their job as part of a society or civilization.
An ad hominem would be if I said something like ‘nobody should listen to this guy because he’s a sociopath,’ it’s not just a retort for when anyone makes any uncharitable characterization of your argument. (It’s also not even evidence that an argument is invalid, that’s called the fallacy fallacy)
Which, if you want to accuse me of committing an ad hominem by characterizing your argument as ‘fuck them kids,’ you might not want to immediately go straight to how they deserved it for living in a red state.