Ad hominem

Intermediate 🎓 Education / Academia

Definition

A Latin term for the intellectual cop-out of attacking someone's character instead of addressing their actual argument. When you can't defeat the logic, you insult the person presenting it—it's the debate equivalent of flipping the board when you're losing at chess. This fallacy is the go-to move of people who've run out of legitimate counterpoints but still want to feel like they're winning.

Example Usage

"Instead of responding to my policy critique, he just called me an idiot—classic ad hominem."

Source: Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ad%20hominem&defid=1215866)

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