this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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Please go ahead and explain what the difference is between calling a person stupid and calling a persons ideas stupid, given stupidity refers to a persons intelligence by definition.
If you call someone's idea stupid, then by definition, you are calling them stupid by extension because that's what that word means.
If used in a colloquial manner I can understand how referring to someone's socks, or a device, or some inanimate object can allow one to call those things "stupid", but the fact of the matter is that referring to ones ideas as stupid is redundant to calling the person stupid directly because they both refer to the intelligence and original thoughts of a person and therefore literally mean the same thing by definition.
Furthermore, the notion that saying for example "Your shirt is stupid" or "Your idea is stupid" or "your feelings are stupid" instead of "You are stupid" is not ad hominem due to the colloquial usage is laughable as a fallacious argument only needs to attack the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person rather than attacking the substance of the argument to be considered ad hominem, and if a persons ideas are not considered an attribute of them, I don't know what is.
I think I'm pretty brushed up on how this works, but perhaps you should take your own advice, thanks.
A very intelligent person can have some very stupid ideas. The fact that they are intelligent does not make their ideas intelligent as well. Referring to an idea as stupid is not the same as referring to the progenitor as stupid.
You do not understand how logical fallacies work. This is demonstrated by your responses.
Furthermore, saying the equivalent of x person is smart therefore they are right and as a result I am right because I invoked person x is an appeal to authority.
Ding ding, ok school is in session:
Ad hominem attack defined
An ad hominem attack is when someone tries to win an argument by attacking the other person's character instead of addressing the actual issue or argument. It's like saying, "You're wrong because you're a bad person," instead of explaining why their idea might be incorrect.
Example
If you call an idea "stupid" but focus on explaining why the idea itself is flawed, it’s not an ad hominem attack. For example:
Not an ad hominem attack: "The plan to build a bridge out of paper is stupid because paper isn’t strong enough to support any weight."
In this case, you're calling the idea "stupid" but you’re explaining why it’s a bad idea based on its merits.
Ad hominem attack: "You think we should build a bridge out of paper? You must be an idiot."
Here, you're attacking the person rather than addressing the reasoning behind their idea.
This endeth the lesson.
Go through a dictionary of your choosing and post the cited definitions of:
Ad hominem
Character
Attribute
Idea
Attack
Stupid
Intelligence
And I'll prove to you by your own cited definitions why you're wrong without going outside of the definitions.
I trust Merriam Webster if you do.
Jesus. Ffs. You can lead a hoe to water but you can't make him think. Block and move on.
So the debate is about what words mean, but when asked to examine what any dictionary defines those words as to understand and agree upon their meanings, you fold immediately?
If the debate was about this, and I offered this to you, then if we follow your anecdote, it was actually me who lead you to the pacific ocean but then you decided to sit on the beach instead of swimming.
I guess you don't believe your argument is predicated on facts in that case since you dropped it the moment you were faced with scrutinizing it against a reputable source.
Goodbye.