Play the man not the ball

Ad hominem attacks (Latin for “to the person”) are logical fallacies where an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or attributes of the person making it rather than addressing the substance of the argument.

This includes all the arguments against Trump (because he has no substance to argue with.)

Its sort of like the argumentative equivalent of means, opportunity and motive.

But what if the ad hominem attack was in fact a murder? Ad hominem homicidium. Ad hominem is attacking the person. Homicide is just taking the argument to its logical conclusion.

To be clear, I’m suggesting we only use ad hominem attacks to counter modern “popularist” movements.