Identify Any Fallacies in the Following Passage Either by Naming

question 128

Short Answer

Identify any fallacies in the following passage either by naming them or, where they seem not to conform to any of the patterns described in the text, by giving a brief explanation of why the fallacious reasoning is irrelevant to the point at issue.
When he was twelve, Walter Polovchak and his family were permitted to emigrate from the Soviet Union to the United States. Walter's father, however, eventually decided to return to Russia and was pressured by the Soviet Embassy to take Walter with him. The American Civil Liberties Union sided with Walter's father, rather than with Walter, who wished to remain in Chicago. When the case reached the courts, the legal arguments of the ACLU were criticized by some editorial writers on the grounds that in most other instances involving the rights of children, the ACLU had always sided with the child. Commented one law professor: "The ACLU's actions regarding Walter can be understood only in terms of 'an unwillingness to criticize communism.'"

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Definitions:

Control

The power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events.

Person-centered Therapy

A counseling approach emphasizing the client's capacity for self-direction and understanding of their own development.

Adjustment

The process of adapting or coping with new, challenging, or changing circumstances, often used in the context of psychological and emotional well-being.

Transcendence

Transcendence refers to the experience of surpassing the ordinary limits of personal self and achieving a heightened state of spiritual or psychological wellbeing.