Ad-Hominem Attacks

In the past I encountered this type of behavior so much from people who disagree with my political views. I knew there had to be a name for it somewhere. I just hadn't discovered it yet. My good friend "Black" gave me a direction to look. A while back I found the name and it's definition. But I underestimated the awareness of people being aware of their own personal behavior. Even though they do this every chance they get. Most of them have never heard this term before. When you look at the two definitions listed. You can see that the two are interchangeable. It depends on who you're talking too, and how the argument is going. Below are the definitions.



ad ho·mi·nem
–adjective
1.
appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason.
2.
attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument.



I just had a long political discussion concerning Conservatives with a Liberal whose opinion I respect. Notice I said respect, not agree with. After consistently evading the questions on the table and never proving a point. He finally brought his filibustering to a close. By proclaiming it was never about winning anyway. That's real big to take that position after you've already lost. Knowing him as I do. I'm sure he went and researched the word and got an ear full. As wordy as he is he couldn't explain his way around that. Go to the link below and read what he read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem