Ad hominem: Difference between revisions
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'''Ad hominem''' is the weakest form of argument. It is an attack or defense on an argument based on who made the argument, rather than based on its merits. | '''Ad hominem''' is the weakest form of argument. It is an attack or defense on an argument based on who made the argument, rather than based on its merits. | ||
Speculative attributions of motive are ad hominem (an observation of [[English Wikipedia User Bird]]) not to mention [[amateur psychiatry]] based usually on [[pop psychology]]. More seriously, and much more damaging: | |||
[[Trolls]] also disapprove of [[ad hominem approval]] wherein the edits of some known author do not fire up a desire to track their trail by following [[Special:Recentchanges]]. | [[Ad hominem revert]] is common on [[large public wiki]]s. It is so damaging that it gives rise to calls for a [[revert currency]] to make such actions "not free". | ||
[[Ad hominem delete]] amplifies the reversion to [[sysop vandalism]], a particularly stupid phenomenon encouraged mostly by [[Wikimedia]] - a strong sign of its [[Wikimedia corruption]]. | |||
[[Trolls]] also disapprove of [[ad hominem approval]] wherein the edits of some known author do not fire up a desire to track their trail by following [[Special:Recentchanges]] and punishing their [[thoughtcrime]]. | |||
Tolerating any form of ad hominem attack (which insiders can get away with but outsiders can't) tends to create a hierarchy of insiders and thus an [[insider culture]] similar to that of [[bureaucracy]] or [[academia]], where a trusted name can spout nonsense for years without being detected or kicked out, and where untrusted names with proof of their claims get ignored. | |||