2 ms·
It's not ad hominem in the context of discussing bias to point out that a person who founded one biased organization also founded a political advocacy group (ak
by sophacles 3y ago
It's not ad hominem in the context of discussing bias to point out that a person who founded one biased organization also founded a political advocacy group (aka another by-definion biased organaization), it is describing a pattern.
- LanceH 3y agoTaking one data point and extrapolating a quality onto the other isn't a "pattern".
- sophacles 3y agoBad extrapolation is not ad hominem either.
- emaginniss 3y agoRobert Kennedy Jr is a crazy anti-vax nutjob, therefore, all of his work on environmentalism is invalid and the entire cause of environmentalism is suspect. Is that how this works?
- sophacles 3y agoOf course not, don't be silly: 1. Saying a person founded a group is not an attack, insulting them is. 2. The relationship between a vaccine stance and an environmental stance is weak, if existent at all. The relationship of a political advocacy group and a media outlet is pretty strong - that is "i have something to say and the tools to say it loudly and widely" is a common pattern among those with the means (religions, wealthy folks, political fringe groups, etc). It's not ad-hominem to say "this new MLM Bernie Madoff is promoting is very similar to the ponzi scheme he was previously convicted of" either. 3. It's not ad-hominem to declare that a persons actions are consistent with their stated goals - it's not an attack, nor is it an attempt at discrediting (or supporting) their position. It is ad-hominem to say "unrelated opinions about vaccines discredit this environmental opinion".