Just a brief blurb today… I ran into this 3 times this week, and as always, when something annoys me, I have to bust out one of these Substacks. I can’t “bust out in annoyance” on Skeptoid, where I must remain dispassionate, so I have to do it here.
Insults and ad hominem attacks are not the same thing. Frequently, however, I see people referring to them as such. Calling someone a jerk is simply an insult; it is not an ad hominem. An ad hominem is a fallacious arguing technique. It means at the person and the idea is that instead of directing your criticism at the person’s point, you’re directing it at them, as if something bad about the person invalidates their point. “Your point is wrong, because of [something about you].”
Some examples:
“He works for the government, so of course whatever he says about the JFK assassination is false.”
“Einstein married his cousin. I wouldn’t trust Special Relativity as far as I could throw it.”
“Brian Dunning wrote an article about Bigfoot? It’s probably not worth the electrons it’s printed on; he’s one of those skeptoid debunkatrons.”
Did a person say something nasty, but not in such a way that it was used to bolster an argument against their point? Then it was just an insult; not an ad hominem.
And if you disagree with me, I couldn’t care less. You probably don’t even have your own podcast. 😉