Logical Fallacy and You!

[DaBackpack]

Originally Posted by Chrissi

The ad hominem attack is the part where you call the person an idiot. The fallacy is connecting that idiocy to their ability to argue well.

Or at least this is my understanding. I could be wrong.

This is correct in the informal fallacy aspect, yeah. If I was arguing with like Ben Shapiro I'd probably pretty frequently be like "hahaha you're fucking stupid but that's not why you're wrong! You're wrong because of xyz..."

However, in the field of rhetoric, it might be seen as a fallacy TOO. After all, the words "fucking stupid" DO have a connotation to them, one that could reasonably undermine the audience's perception about the argumentation of that person. The "fallacy" might be seen as present even if you don't make that explicit connection, since, like so many rhetorical strategies, the subtext and implicit meaning of that attack serve to undermine your opponent's ethos, which directly connects with their perceived correctness.

EDIT: To be clear I'm in the "not a fallacy" camp since I've studied more as a logician than a debater, but the issue isn't always clear-cut depending on what angle a certain person comes from.