AD HOMINEM - or why I didn't have dates in high school

ME-It’s time for Fallacy Friday
FACEBOOK- Oh great! Another lecture from less-cool-Urkel.
 ME- Today’s fallacy is the “Ad Hominem” attack.
FACEBOOK- ad hominem? Is that Latin for “you didn't date in high school?”
ME-No, It refers to the practice of attacking the person making an argument, rather than attacking that person's argument itself.
FACEBOOK-I saw you attacking a box of donuts this morning.
ME-The attacks could be a crude, like the ones above, or they could be something more subtle.
FACEBOOK-You weren’t subtle with those donuts.
ME-attacking the way someone dresses or passing on an unflattering pictures of a person, can also be considered an ad hominem attack and should be avoided. The problem is, we all do this, all the time. Take a look at the FaceBook posts on this page. I guarantee that most of the political posts contain at least one ad hominem.  I understand that it is sometimes satisfying to call your opponent naive or stupid but really that kind of thing just gets in the way of discussing the issues. And just calling someone a liar or a crook is not an argument. Unfortunately even making fun of someone’s hair is nothing more than a crappy logical fallacy.
FACEBOOK-I knew it! He’s a Trump supporter.
ME-please stop calling be names. That one really hurt.



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