Devolving Toward Personal Attacks

I teach a number of college/university courses that involve persuasive public speaking and writing and every semester I find the need to re-explain what ad hominin attacks are and why they are logical fallacies.

The Excelsior (University) Online Writing Lab reminds us that “ ad hominem means ‘against the man,’ and this type of fallacy is sometimes called name calling or the personal attack fallacy. This type of fallacy occurs when someone attacks the person instead of attacking his or her argument.”

It seems that, when some political opponents and others can’t formulate a substantial argument focused on the issues, they resort to attacking the man or woman who is on the other side of the fence or aisle. We have seen this logical fallacy increase in use over much of the past decade, with political candidates using this sort of Beavis and Butthead logic to try to win voters. “I can’t prove that my opponent’s views are wrong, so I’ll attack the person as not worthy of being elected.” This is often an under-educated person’s only way to speak up against the person who opposes their beliefs, attitudes, and values.

“They are too old.” “They are in cognitive decline.” “They aren’t that smart.” “They are too this or too that,” most of which have little to do with the actual issue. Elementary school playground sorts of taunting.

This occurs regularly on social media. When the person replying to a posting can’t make a sound argument against the original posting, they often resort to name calling and point out personal traits that have little or nothing to do with the issue(s) at hand.

Ad hominim arguments tend to also contribute to the divisiveness in this and other countries. We are supposed to be an evolving species, yet we seem to be devolving to a terrible extent when it comes to creating strong, sound arguments based on research and facts. It’s easier to just attack a person’s traits and move on to other things. If this continues, we will likely be selecting elected officials based more and more on how they look, how they speak, how they dress, and other unrelated aspects of their lives and less on where they stand on important issues.

Isn’t it time to focus on issues rather than personal traits when we are electing our leaders?

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