An ad hominem is a fallacious argument pertaining to one or more individual characteristics of one or more persons. Criticism of an argument as pedantic and/or

An ad hominem is a fallacious argument pertaining to one or more individual characteristics of one or more persons. Criticism of an argument as pedantic and/or sophistry cannot possibly be an ad hominem, because it is a criticism of the argument itself. By contrast, your attempt to discredit me by reference to some other interaction we seem to have had is an ad hominem. More interestingly, your reference to John von Neumann and your reference to a moderator are both also a subclass of ad hominems known as "appeals to authority." https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-ad-hominem-fallacy/ https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-ad-hominem-fallacy/