Verbal Self-Defense #6

If you question or diminish ideas which someone feels tied to – from which they gain standing in one way or another – they’re likely to dislike you and/or to verbally attack you. So, since non-standard opinions are the path to progress, it’s important that we learn how to deal with these attacks.

The attack I’ll describe below involves something called the ad hominem fallacy, which is a tool for winning an argument, based not upon the facts, but by attacking the person arguing against you. In other words, this trick uses personal attacks to distract everyone from the actual facts.

If done successfully, the opponents and observers will focus only on the failings (real or imagined) of the person being attacked, and will uncritically accept the conclusion of the person launching the attack.