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Argumentum ad hominem

Argumentum ad hominem means “argument to the man” and that’s exactly what it is. When a propagandist uses argumentum ad hominem, he wants to distract our attention from the issue under consideration with personal attacks on the people involved. For example, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, some people responded by calling him the”baboon”. But Lincoln’s long arms and awkward carriage had nothing to do with the merits of the Proclamation or the question of whether or not slavery should be abolished.

Refuse to be way –laid by argumentum ad hominem and ask, “Do personal qualities of the person being discussed have anything to do with the issue at hand? Leaving him aside, how good is the idea itself?”

Transfer

In argumentum ad hominem, an attempt is made to associate negative aspects of a person’s character or personal appearance with the issue or idea he supports. The transfer device uses the same process of association to make us accept or condemn a given person or idea.

The process works equally well in reverse, when guilt by association is used to transfer our dislike or disapproval of one idea or group to some other idea or group that the propagandist wants us to reject and condemn. “John Doe says we need to make some changes in the way our government operates; well that’s exactly what the Ku Klux Klan has said, so there’s a meeting of great minds!” That’s guilt by association for you; there is no logical connection between John Doe and get us thinking (and worrying) about the Ku Klux Klan and its politics of violence.

How can we learn to spot transfer device and distinguish between fair and unfair associations? We can teach ourselves to suspect judgment until we have answered these questions: “Is there any legitimate connection between the idea under discussion and the thing it is associated with? Leaving the transfer device out of the picture, what are the merits of the idea by itself?”

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