You're an Ad Hominem Fallacy!!
Refuting an argument by attacking some aspect of the presentation of it, rather than addressing the content of the argument itself. It can consist of an attack on the person making the argument; the source of their information; their circumstances; their previous position; a discrepancy between their actions and their argument; or the style in which the argument is presented.
Ad hominem is very often mistakenly claimed in cases where an argument's opponent attacks its proponent
in addition to presenting a valid counterargument. "You're stupid, therefore your argument is invalid" is an
ad hominem; "your argument is invalid, therefore you're stupid" (or "Your argument is invalid
and you're stupid") is not. Similarly, some people seem to think that Ad Hominem is necessarily abusive, which it isn't. "You've used the 'Four Terms' fallacy, you stupid idiot, therefore you're using faulty logic" is not Ad Hominem (although it might be
Fallacy Fallacy if done badly). "Mike has clearly put a lot of thought into whether we should buy a pool, but he
is a convicted felon" is.
A key point is whether the unflattering accusation about the person is relevant to the topic at hand. However, this is on a sliding scale as arguments or statements can stand on their own merit.
Direct ad hominem:
The attack is made directly on the person making the argument. Here's a standard hypothetical example:
Adolf Hitler: This is an irresponsible fiscal policy because the budget deficit is too great.
While Hitler certainly wasn't a nice person, that in itself is unrelated to
the logical validity of any arguments he makes. This extends to a degree in situations where the ad hominem attack itself is
related to the argument; if the supposition comes from a source that is known for fallibility or may have a reason to be biased, it should be treated with healthy skepticism, but not assumed to be false.
It would be quite logically sound to say "why should we take their word for it; they're unreliable and biased!" It is not sound, however, to say that the above statement
must be false, because despite the fact that the Weekly World News was noted for being full of made-up stories, George Washington
was the first President of the United States.
Examples:
- Most people can recognize a simplistic ad hominem attack as humorous, but that didn't stop DirecTv from flipping out at a spot by Time Warner asserting that "DirecTv hates puppies
"
Looks like this fallacy but is not:
- When the rebuttal is insulting but relevant and true: "You can't be a member of Mensa as you claim, because your IQ tests indicate that your IQ is 70".
- When an insult is present but is not used as a component of a logical argument. Simply saying "You are an idiot, because your logic is fallacious" is not polite, but unless there's a "therefore" step to a conclusion, it is not a fallacy. On the other hand, "Your logic is fallacious, because you are an idiot" is.
- When it is in response to an explicit or implicit appeal to the authority of the speaker:
"I studied law at Harvard, and I can see that this law is clearly unconstitutional."
"You studied law at Harvard, but you never got a degree."
- The validity of this counterargument can be summarized thusly: "your credentials aren't as impressive as you say, so you're going to have to prove that rather than tell us to take your word for it."
Circumstantial ad hominem:
When the circumstances of the arguer are held to affect the truth of the argument. It's frequently rolled out against people who have any kind of motive for making their argument (the "he
would say that, wouldn't he?" defense), often intended to imply that "he" is an incredibly selfish/malicious person for even looking at the idea with an open mind. In reality, it's more unreasonable to expect someone to have
no reason to hold their viewpoint; their vested interest does not automatically invalidate their criticism.
Bob: "This bill will be expensive and will not work, therefore you should vote against it."
Alice: "Bob is employed by a company which stands to lose money from this bill, therefore Bob will lose money and perhaps his job if this bill passes. Of course he would oppose it."
Looks like this fallacy, but is not:
- If an individual is supposed to be in a position that requires them to be objective, such as a judge or a journalist, pointing out a conflict of interest is a valid arguement, especially if they haven't properly disclosed their affiliation.
Poisoning the Well:
This fallacy can be one of two types, either discrediting the opponent before they even begin to make their argument, usually by a direct ad hominem against them ("And might I just remind the audience before Alice speaks that she is a convicted felon?")
or by calling the validity of their sources or standing into question after they have made their argument. More or less the converse of
Appeal To Authority; here, the attempt is to make an audience reject a claim because of the speaker's alleged
lack of authority.
"You'll find Bob talks about law an awful lot for a guy who got his degree from Eastern Iowa State University."
The attempt here is to preemptively discredit Bob's standing as a lawyer not on the basis of what he's actually saying, but on where he was schooled.
The most pernicious manifestation is where where entire groups are potentially shut out of the discussion:
- Men can't talk about abortion because they don't get pregnant
- American whites can't talk about slavery because they never experienced it.
This seems like an example, but is actually a different problem of logic:
"You cited the Encyclopedia Britannica. A recent study found that Encyclopedia Britannica had 123 errors of fact — in only 42 articles."
As a reply to "This fact is true because the Encyclopedia Britannica states as much," this has a sound logical basis; because the cited reason to believe the statement is the credibility of the encyclopedia, an attack on its credibility is relevant and therefore
not an ad hominem. What it
is, in fact, is a misleading citation of statistics; these factual errors could be minor misspellings of titles that all occurred in one mistranslated article, for example.
Examples:
- Most accusations of White Knighting are intended to discredit the accused by making it seem as if they have a self-interested reason to hold their stated position. While this may be true, it does not make said position any less valid.
- Another type of Ad Hominem, Tu Quoque refers to the attempt to deny an argument by asserting that the person presenting the argument either suffers from the same flaw (i.e. they do not practice what they preach) or has held an opposing view in the past. The fact that such a person is a hypocrite if he criticizes others for bearing the same flaw he does in his personal life is actually not related to actual objective facts about said flaw or his line of reasoning in condemning that flaw.
Bob: "Smoking and alcoholism are well-known as risks for cancer."
Alice: "But you yourself smoke and drink a lot! You're wrong!"
The fact that Bob is a smoker and drinker doesn't mean that he is wrong about the effects of those habits. Still confused? A better rebuttal would be to accept the premise that alcohol and smoking really are cancer risks, but then ask why Bob continues to do them. Perhaps Bob knows full well about the dangers of such addictions, but he may or may not be a Hedonist with no sense of self preservation, or it's just because he cannot or is yet to break from his very own addiction, hence why he continues to do it. Or because he is consciously or unconsciously suicidal, which makes his self-harm a logical consequence.
Another example is how (former) drug addicts who have suffered for their drug usage can also be very well qualified in admonishing others to not get started in harmful, expensive, illegal and addictive substances (sometimes even more due to personal experience and physical proof of the damage incurred by the drug addiction).
Bob: "This bill will be expensive and will not work, therefore you should vote against it."
Alice: "But you supported the bill last month!"
Now, simply pointing out a contradiction in someone's arguments is not Ad Hominem Tu Quoque. AHTQ is when you claim the other person's argument
is wrong because they're contradicting something else they've said. Once again,
his reasoning might be unsound but that does not affect the truth value of his premises. Bob's new argument is not invalidated by any previous position he may have held. A logically sound counterargument would be to restate the reasoning behind Bob's previous position to him and ask why he changed his mind from that line of thinking, which makes it acceptable.
A more valid counterattack would be to use the speaker's hypocrisy to bring up a
valid point about the speaker's credibility in itself, without denying any facts he say; you can use this fallacy to attempt to prove that the speaker is a Hypocrite or a lying
Manipulative Bastard. If the hypocrisy is logically connected to possibility of lying, then it is not AHTQ, but if hypocrisy is used to automatically mean
discrediting any real-world facts he attempts to say, then it is AHTQ.
Examples:
Healy: You're a fucking cheat.
Atherton: When in Rome, dear boy...
- The ever-persistent "You criticize X, but you're using something provided by X!" argument.
- When fanfic writer pstibbons was called out for writing a fanfic who's only purpose was to have Hermione torture and humiliate Ron, he cited an earlier work of his, where Ron is brutally murdered by Harry, claiming that since people didn't raise a fuss back then, they are clearly sexist. *
Several people did, in fact complain about Ron's treatment in that fic as well, but since Ron's death at Harry's hand was merely referenced in a single off-hand sentence, compared to an entire fic devoted to it, it didn't draw nearly as much attention.
Looks like this fallacy but is not:
- Double Think. At first, ignoring the speaker's hypocrisy seems to mean accepting any contradictory actions he performs. However, accpeting Tu Quoque as a fallacy does not mean accepting all Double Think spewed out by hypocrites and abusers of Screw the Rules, I Make Them! as logically valid. Tu Quoque is when the speaker's hypocrisy is used to discredit any objective real-world facts he says, but Doublethink means accepting all logically fallacious contradictions he says.
- About the earlier "You criticize X, but you're using something by X" argument: If this is used to discredit any facts he say, then it is wrong (for example, you adhere to Human Rights but continue to use Apple products that you know was made through Chinese slave labour. That does not mean you are automatically wrong about your human rights opinions). If this is used to point out that the speaker's recommendations should not yet be trusted, then it isn't AHTQ. (For example, it is not a fallacy if you ask first why Luddites keep using computers instead of living an all-natural example. If the conclusion is that "this hypocrite can't be trusted", then it can bring up a valid question. If this is used to mean "Luddites are completely wrong about everything" then it is AHTQ).
- When the value of the speaker's word is being considered in order to evaluate his statements as testimony. It is not fallacious for a court to consider the reliability of a witness doubtful if they find he has a history of committing perjury or has accepted money in exchange for his testimony; it is only fallacious if his testimony is discarded out of hand on this basis, regardless of what it actually is.
- When the speaker is arguing that the opponent is treating something as uniquely wrong, yet has done the same thing themselves. For example, if a boy is sent to his room for being the only person in his house to ever raid the biscuit tin, it would not be fallacious for him to point out that he did it because he saw his father doing it, therefore it is not valid to punish him on that basis.
Style Over Substance
Also called:
- If You Can't Say Something Nice
- Appeal To Brevity
- Too long; Didn't read (tl;dr or "teal deer")
- Grammar Nazi
- Sock Puppet
Another sub-type of Ad Hominem, the style over substance fallacy is where the manner in which an argument is presented
is held to affect the validity of that argument.
A common version is to dismiss an entire argument if the person making it uses bad language or insults, or sounds "too angry" — in essence, claiming that since their opponent cannot conduct themselves "politely," they obviously have nothing worthwhile to add to the discussion. Throwing someone out for breaking rules of conduct is not fallacious, but throwing their
arguments out on this basis certainly is. For example, Alice argues passionately and angrily against the prejudice against women at her job, which results in her and the other female workers being paid less than their male coworkers. Bob tries to dismiss her arguments by saying she is "just angry", but her anger does not invalidate her arguments, not to mention that anger at injustice is a valid response to the situation.
Another common variant is to disregard an argument presented in an allegedly incorrect manner; for example, because it is too long, too short, badly-spelled, badly punctuated, or uses poor grammar. Not making the effort to make a coherent, concise reply is certainly rude, but being rude is not the same as being wrong. This fallacy is quite common in internet discussions, and boils down to "You didn't present your argument the way I like, therefore it is wrong."
Note that saying "Your argument is presented poorly, therefore I will not read/ listen to it," is
not a logical fallacy, unless you also state that the argument they were making is false because of its poor presentation. Also, someone can actually
be a
Sock Puppet, but one needs to be careful of who is labeled and why, as this has become a rather popular way on internet forums to discredit dissenting beliefs and vetting attempts.
Examples:
- In appellate cases, legal briefs are left unread should they exceed a certain number of pages, if they should have an incorrectly colored cover, or if other stylistic details are not studiously included.
- HR departments do the same for resumes or CVs if they're formatted incorrectly or even contain a single misspelled word.
- Note that in neither case is the court/HR department saying you're wrong for incorrect formatting; rather, not following the rules is seen as an indication of disrespect. "You failed to do this simple thing that we asked you to do; why should we listen to you if you won't listen to us?" This is also done for reasons of economy, particularly in courts: "We have limited time to consider this endless mountain of equally-worthy cases; we'll take any excuse to dismiss a case quickly." It sounds dickish, but when you see how much judges actually have to read every day...
Looks like this fallacy but is not:
- When the presentation is so unclear that it is genuinely impossible to follow the reasoning.
- When the errors are pointed out simply for the sake of pointing out the errors, rather than as evidence that the arguer is wrong.
- When the opponent is using a fallacious Proof by Verbosity; firing so many weak points off that it is impossible to respond to them within the format of the debate. In essence, the opponent may have nothing but mud to sell, but by piling it up so thick so quickly they hope to pass it off as rock solid. One example here, from Duane Gish. The Proof by Verbosity is an informal fallacy.
- In court proceedings, it is normal for both parties to use ad hominem arguments against the persons the other party has called to present expert testimony. In this context, the tactic is valid because the judge and the jury, by virtue of not being experts in the field on which testimony is being provided (for example, medical evidence), are not qualified to assess the matter on technical grounds and have to judge in virtue of whose authority they find more persuasive.
A good discussion of the
ad hominem fallacy on the Internet may be found
on the website of one Stephen Bond. See also
Logical Fallacies and
Hitler Ate Sugar.
