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Notes -
Outlining the story as was passed on to me by a family member, there was a recent case here in Alaska where there was a proposal to create a paved road connecting one of the rural villages to the broader highway system (such as it is). Well, some of the opponents of the proposal looked at the plan for how the road would pass through the village, found the name of the person who owns the property at the proposed endpoint, and then started arguing about 'why is the state proposing to spend millions of dollars to build a road to [name]'s house?'
Is there a name for this sort of argument? I mean, setting aside the whole 'ignoring everyone else who would benefit from the road in favor of focusing on the endpoint,' there's the fact that any proposed road would wind up ending at some person's property*. If not this guy, it would be some other guy… but then they'd just ask 'why is the state proposing to spend millions of dollars to build a road to [other guy's name]'s house?' instead. It's a sort of fully-generalizable argument disguised as a specific criticism.
*Unless you spend money building a segment out past where anybody lives into empty wilderness; in which case the opponents would instead be (rightly) asking why you're wasting money on a stretch of pavement that nobody is likely to ever much use.
Framing? Rhetoric?
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