L+Atherton



Ad Hominem: In simple terms, it means “to the person”. //Ad rem// means “to the thing”. Ad hominem could also be defined as argument to the man. You see a lot of ad hominem fallacies in political debates. That’s how I find it easy to remember what ad hominem means. The entire debate they are constantly arguing back and forth about how the other person is wrong, simply showing ad hominem.

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Video 1: (Donald Trump attacking Ted Cruz)

At 0:16 into the first video, you already see the fallacy ad hominem. Donald Trump states, “I got along with everybody, you get along with nobody. You don’t have one republican, you don’t have one republican senator and you work with them every single day of your life, although you skipped a lot of time, these are minor details. But you don’t have one republican senator backing you, not one.”

Video 2: (Hillary Clinton attacking Bernie Sanders) media type="youtube" key="GN7KTvObaYI" width="560" height="315"

Throughout the entire video, Hillary makes a statement that Bernie Sanders has put forth an attack. In all reality, Hillary is really doing the attacking through ad hominem. From the time that her time started to answer the question she began attacking Bernie. Her entire statement was a full ad hominem towards him. She states, "Senator Sanders has said he wants to run a positive campaign and I’ve tried to keep my disagreements over issues as it should be. But time and time again, by innuendo and insinuation there is this attack that he is putting forth. Which really comes down to anybody who has ever taken donation or speaking fees from any speaking group.”

Examples: 1. You wouldn't understand since you've never had a job here. 2. This is a female issue. As a man how would you ever have an opinion about this? 3. You can't make marriage decisions whenever you've never been married before. 4. You're too young to understand. 5. It's pretty obvious that your political party is made up of arrogant people, so your thoughts are irrelevant.