Thanks Again to Sheriff Lamb

     We read in the Arizona City Independent of June 24, 1990 the headline “Lamb still opposes Ducey's stay-at-home order” subtitled “Even as he is diagnosed with COVID-19.”

While ostensibly a reporting of facts, it seemed to me that the authors of the article were trying to suggest something. The use of the word “even” in “Even as he is diagnosed with COVID-19” implies that the fact that Sheriff Lamb was diagnosed with COVID-19 should cause him to reconsider his previous stance on Ducey's stay-at-home order.

     Let's look at how this line of reasoning plays out in syllogistic form:

---Lamb opposed Ducey's stay-at-home order

---Lamb contracted COVID-19

---Therefore, Lamb should retract his opposition to the stay-at-home order

     Obviously, this makes no sense. Since the authors of the article didn't make a clear argument, I can of course be accused of attributing to them an argument they never intended (straw-manning). However, I believe their use of the word “even” in the subtitle of the article justifies an attempt at trying to reconstruct an argument that uses the fact of Sheriff Lamb's contraction of COVID-19 to impugn his stance on the stay-at-home order.

     Let's try again.

---Lamb oppose Ducey's stay-at-home order

---As a result, people in Pinal County were infected with COVID-19

---Lamb was one of those people

---Therefore, Lamb should retract his opposition to the stay-at-home order

     There is an unstated assumption: if people had obeyed Ducey's stay-at-home order, there would have been no COVID-19 infections. I don't believe many would try to defend this proposition. Clever people would likely put it in a milder form: “if people had obeyed Ducey's stay-at-home order, there would have been fewer COVID-19 infections.” But in that case, we can no longer link Sheriff Lamb's opposition to the stay-at-home order to his COVID-19 infection, as he might have been infected no matter what his stance had been.

     There is also the matter of the assumption that the danger of COVID-19 infection warrants the abrogation of individual rights of self-ownership and property. I've dealt with this topic in several recent blog posts and so will not repeat myself at this time.

     In any case, I'd like to thank Sheriff Lamb for his continuing courageous stance on the COVID-19 hysteria.