From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2005 - 04:08:57 GMT
Hi Horse, Arlo,
Arlo, thanks for the idea; Horse, thanks for checking it out. The
results aren't a bit surprising, at least not to me.
There's another angle to consider in this cacophony of what is and
isn't an ad hominem attack. The idea of "refuting" an argument ad
hominem is different from simply insulting someone. If someone holds
up a lemon and says "This is an apple, see the coarse yellow rind,"
and I say "Only a moron would think that's an apple," that's
attacking an argument ad hominem. If I say, "Look, most apples have
a slick smooth red skin and sweet taste. What you're holding is
almost certainly a lemon," this is an empirical and logical
refutation of someone's mistaken idea. If I then add "And, BTW,
you're a moron for thinking you're holding an apple," I've issued an
insult, not an ad hominem attack on an argument.
Now, if we can only get those conservative assholes to understand
this.
Best to all,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
--
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On 21 Jan 2005 at 0:30, Horse wrote:
Hi Arlo
On 20 Jan 2005 at 13:45, Arlo Bensinger wrote:
> I don't archive O'Reily's broadcasts, but here is something you can
> do. Go to Google, type in "liberal" and "asshole" (or your choice
of
> "ad hominem" attack). Search either "web" or "groups". If you can't
> find any evidence doing this that "conservatives" engage in "ad
> hominem" attacks just as vociferously as "liberals", then let me
> know.
Your suggestion appealed to my warped sense of humour so I though I'd
give it a try and see what turned up. I thought I'd try a few
different (mainly low-key) expletives to see what happened and offer
my apologies in advance to those of you with a delicate disposition
and/or who are easily offended by bad language.
The results are below:
Keyword Conservative Liberal
Asshole 671 1710
Arsehole 48 59
Twat 40 125
Moron 506 2730
Tosser 2 23
Wanker 104 162
I googled using the terms in quotation marks (i.e. "conservative
asshole" (result 671) and "liberal asshole" (result 1710) etc.)
rather
than the two words appearing seperately in the same text so that it
was fairly obviously ad hominem. Overall there appears to be greater
usage against liberals (presumably by conservatives) so, judging by
the above, it would appear that conservatives are more likely to use
ad hominem attacks against liberals than the reverse.
I tried one or two other stronger expletives (which I haven't
included
for obvious reasons) which were even more biased (by a huge margin)
against liberals than those shown above.
I wouldn't say that it necessarily proves anything but it does appear
that you are more likely to be 'ad hominemed' if you show liberal
tendencies.
Horse
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