Should people who have not served NS have the right to talk about it? Many people seem to think they shouldn’t. For instance. Josephine Teo and Khaw Boon Wan have been criticized for talking about national service – one of the reasons being that they didn’t serve NS. Now I’m not trying to defend their arguments or points; I’m merely trying to point out that we shouldn’t let their origins bias the perception of their arguments.
It doesn’t invalidate their claims, however. Arguments stand on their own merit. In the same way, rich politicians can argue for moderation and increased taxes without being hypocritical. You can’t fault someone for maximizing their own utility.
On a tangent, I would like to invite you to think about the following scenario: a smoker tells you that cigarette smoking is bad. Does the fact that he is a cigarette smoker change the fact or alter his argument? Doubt it. An argument will be faulty if it is faulty, and we need to expose more ad hominem in our conversations.