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Ad Hominem Quotes

Browse 16 quotes about Ad Hominem.

Ad Hominem Quotes

“[W]henever we heard an unflattering portrait of our own side our first question to ourselves was not “Is this true?” but “What are they trying to hide about themselves by accusing us of this?” Once this mental defense system had been perfected, few criticisms could hit home.”

IdeologySelf DeceptionAd Hominem
Book:Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster
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“Edward genially enough did not disagree with what I said, but he didn't seem to admit my point, either. I wanted to press him harder so I veered close enough to the ad hominem to point out that his life—the life of the mind, the life of the book collector and music lover and indeed of the gallery-goer, appreciator of the feminine and occasional boulevardier—would become simply unlivable and unthinkable in an Islamic republic. Again, he could accede politely to my point but carry on somehow as if nothing had been conceded. I came slowly to realize that with Edward, too, I was keeping two sets of books. We agreed on things like the first Palestinian intifadah, another event that took the Western press completely off guard, and we collaborated on a book of essays that asserted and defended Palestinian rights. This was in the now hard-to-remember time when all official recognition was withheld from the PLO. Together we debated Professor Bernard Lewis and Leon Wieseltier at a once-celebrated conference of the Middle East Studies Association in Cambridge in 1986, tossing and goring them somewhat in a duel over academic 'objectivity' in the wider discipline. But even then I was indistinctly aware that Edward didn't feel himself quite at liberty to say certain things, while at the same time feeling rather too much obliged to say certain other things. A low point was an almost uncritical profile of Yasser Arafat that he contributed to Interview magazine in the late 1980s.”

ArtMusicFeminismBooksDebateMiddle EastPalestineIntellectualismCambridgeTheocracyIsraeli Palestinian ConflictPalestiniansArafat1980sEdward SaidAd Hominem1986IntifadaMiddle Eastern StudiesInterview MagazineBernard LewisIslamic RepublicFirst IntifadaLeon Wieseltier
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“Denying God is "ad hominem" to all humanity. Atheism commits ad hominem at every moment because it attacks God who is our Self. In this way, every man is characterized as incapable of achieving the goal, which is the main ad hominem attack.”

SelfHumanityAtheismPersonalAttackAd HominemDeny God
Book:A Guide to the Psyche of Atheism, Religion and Philosophy and Their Impact on Contemporary Spirituality
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“It neither kills outright nor inflicts apparent physical harm, yet the extent of its destructive toll is already greater than that of any war, plague, famine, or natural calamity on record - and its potential damage to the quality of human life and the fabric of civilized society is beyond calculation. For that reason this sickness of the soul might well be called the 'Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.' Its more conventional name, of course, is dehumanization.”

RacismHarmAd Hominem
Book:The Dehumanization of Man
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“Treating Abuse Today 3(4) pp. 26-33 TAT: No. I don't know anymore than you know they're not. But, I'm talking about boundaries and privacy here. As a therapist working with survivors, I have been harassed by people who claim to be affiliated with the false memory movement. Parents and other family members have called or written me insisting on talking with me about my patients' cases, despite my clearly indicating I can't because of professional confidentiality. I have had other parents and family members investigate me -- look into my professional background -- hoping to find something to discredit me to the patients I was seeing at the time because they disputed their memories. This isn't the kind of sober, scientific discourse you all claim you want.”

AbuseBoundariesHarassmentIntimidationInterviewPseudoscienceSociety DenialPrivate InvestigatorPsychological AbuseSurvivors Of AbuseFalse MemoriesPedophiliaScamFalse MemoryFalse Memory Syndrome FoundationFalse Memory SyndromeRepressed MemoryFmsfConfidentialityParental AbuseAbuse DeniersPseudo ScienceAd HominemPseudoscientificPsychotherapistIntrusivePamela FreydAnti SciencePrivacy ProblemsBoundary ViolationsViolation Leading To Disruption
Author:David L. Calof
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“You get ill, you are accused of being mentally ill, denied effective treatment, then when you campaign for ‘real science’, you are accused of terrorising those who do not believe in your illness...after all, if your message is that people who say they are suffering from ME or CFS are mentally ill, then accusing them of irrational attacks adds strength to your case.”

Chronic Fatigue SyndromeMyalgic EncephalomyelitisMe CfsMe Cfs QuotesAd HominemPsychologizationMentally UnstableReal Science
Book:Skewed: Psychiatric Hegemony and the Manufacture of Mental Illness in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Gulf War Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
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“Some lurid things have been said about me—that I am a racist, a hopeless alcoholic, a closet homosexual and so forth—that I leave to others to decide the truth of. I'd only point out, though, that if true these accusations must also have been true when I was still on the correct side, and that such shocking deformities didn't seem to count for so much then. Arguing with the Stalinist mentality for more than three decades now, and doing a bit of soapboxing and street-corner speaking on and off, has meant that it takes quite a lot to hurt my tender feelings, or bruise my milk-white skin.”

RacismHomosexualityAlcoholismIraq WarWar On TerrorInsultsStalinismEdward SaidAd HominemClosetedAlexander Cockburn
Book:Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
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“Despite the clear scientific consensus, a veritable brigade of self-proclaimed, underinformed armchair experts lurk on comment threads the world over, eager to pour scorn on climate science. Barrages of ad hominem attacks all too often await both the scientists working in climate research and journalists who communicate the research findings.”

Climate ChangeGlobal WarmingSkepticismScornClimate Change DenialUnscientificAd HominemKeyboard WarriorsArmchair ExpertsClimate Skeptics
Author:David Robert Grimes
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“Such a principled disregard of ad hominem evidence is a characteristically modern prejudice of professional philosophers. For most Greek and Roman thinkers from Plato to Augustine, theorizing was but one mode of living life philosophically. To Socrates and the countless classical philosophers who tried to follow in his footsteps, the primary point was not to ratify a certain set of propositions (even when the ability to define terms and analyze arguments was a constitutive component of a school's teaching), but rather to explore 'the kind of person, the sort of self' that one could elaborate as a result of taking the quest for wisdom seriously.”

WisdomAd Hominem
Author:James Miller
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“As for the majority, it is not so much race as it is political affiliation that really divides it today. What was once an issue of physical difference is now one of intellectual difference. Men have yet to master disagreeing without flashing all their frustrations that come with it; the conservative will throw half-truths while the liberal will throw insults. Combine these and what do you get? A dishonest mockery of a country.”

LoveCharacterPoliticalReligionHateCulturePoliticsReligiousPartyRaceGraceSocietyMediaMoralityRepublicanNewsIntellectualRacismForgivenessRespectLiesMercyAngerPatienceMajorityDemocratConservativeArguingDebateToleranceSeparationPropagandaHypocrisyFrustrationDeceitDivisionGossipIntoleranceDisagreementDisrespectSlanderMockeryImmaturityInsultsLibelLiberalMinorityFallaciesAd HominemRacialStraw MenPoliticism
Book:Healology
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