thinkinginpictures wrote:
I find all too often, more neurotypicals than aspies engage in ad hominem attacks (that is, attacking a specific poster not for his/her opinions or arguments, but because he/her is the author).
Is there any statistical data to support this observation, and if it is correct, why do they love ad hominem attacks?
I don't know if NTs make more ad hominem attacks than aspies or not, but I imagine that several people who engage in ad hominem attacks actually do know what they are doing, and they do it because oftentimes it
works in convincing onlookers about who is correct.
There are two related "fallacies" (if that's the right word) that I don't think get enough attention.
1. Alternating between accepting or denying the same factual observation depending on who has made it (e.g., depending on whether the person making the observation is happy about it or not).
2. Labelling something an ad hominem fallacy when it really isn't. Since society is full of competing interests, and since many opinions are simply judgements about what society "ought" to do, then often the identity of a person is actually relevant to what they are saying.
17 Feb 2021, 9:23 am
