No not a bad day. Pretty great day actually. But "ad hominem" shows up in almost every SDN thread. He didn't attempt to invalidate your argument using a personal characteristic (ad hominem) he instead inferred about a personal characteristic based on your argument. This is absolutely not ad hominem 🙂 (added a happy emotion as to not confuse the situation any further)
Good, Im glad you're happy. heres a thumbs up friend :thumb up:
Im not on SDN as much as you, but Ive never seen the term used, as surely not overused. But again, this is a non issuer since I don't abuse the term and being too nit picky about its use is a bit nerdy. Its especially useless when you try to correct its use when it was used correctly.
So lets be nerds and hash out this issue that seems to be so very important to you. Ad hominem is a debate tactic (and fallacy!
😉) usually used when someone is either too emotional or has nothing better to say. Its not limited to personal characteristics, its actually just belittling or insulting someone you're debating. Its a personal attack. Any personal attack.
In this case, Johnny D, instead of answering (which would have been to construct a good experiment for OMT testing) chose to point out a perceived deficiency in my knowledge. He was actually right on and Im not offended by it. The problem is, that was ad hominem, meaning his answer only commented to my person and not to the subject matter...and so this didn't add to the argument. Thats what I called out, and its not that big of a deal. Telling someone their using an ad hominem attack is more of a way to let them know you'd rather talk about the subject at hand; its not an insult. So, yes, that absolutely is ad hominem, but it absolutely doesn't matter.
😉
Also, if you want to be picky...be sure to check your grammar. Id normally let it slide, but you seem to appreciate exactness, so heres an english lesson for you: you can "he inferred about a personal characteristic.." A good sentence could read, "he inferred something about your personal characteristics". Also, a lack of experience in a given area(which is what JD inferred) is not a personal characteristic, its a personal flaw, or just a gap in knowledge. A characteristic is more of a generalized concept that could add to a specific flaw, but not the flaw itself.
OK! now you pick apart my argument and lets go back and forth forever cause we're so smart!
I guess the only good part about this is that I feel like Im helping invalidate this worthless thread. (was is you that called me the batman of SDN, because I feel like Im being the villain this thread needs...or at least that Im adding to the useless debating along with the other villains of SDN)