This kind of generalisation hides every argument that matters, though.
It's all very well to expose the NSA, he now says – but in the long term, there's a wider argument that matters more, about our very definition of privacy, and about whether we think it's a fundamental value that should be treasured at all costs.
"If I own my own BlackBerry and I pay for the service and the government doesn't pay for it, and someone issues a document demand to an executive department," he said, "there's a strong argument that matters in the control of individuals are exactly that".
"There are many reasons given to the decline in Bees, but one argument that matters most is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and "Terminator Seeds" that are presently being endorsed by governments and forcefully utilized as our primary agricultural needs of survival," argued the anti-globalization group Global Research, in what amounted to a rhetorical and circumstantial argument.
So the argument that matters is this: tackling climate change is for our health and our economy.
But it is hard to ignore the committee's arguments that the matter is far from simple.
Remarkably, here they acknowledge one of the milk critics' central arguments: that no matter how much calcium you down, without adequate exercise and vitamin D, it's to no avail.
"There's a general sense of fairness involved in arguments that inequality matters – that to function well an economy needs a way for people to get a foothold and progress, or else the whole enterprise folds in on itself as the social contract breaks (think Egypt and Tunisia) or for lack of demand and investment (think the Soviet Union).
If it were substantive arguments that really mattered, the F-22 -- and a whole lot more -- never would have gotten out of the Pentagon's incubator for bad but expensive ideas.
Will doesn't waste time challenging arguments that don't matter and he doesn't erect straw men unless he absolutely has to.
