Trumpian Logical Fallacies: Ad Hominem

Ad Hominem is one of Trump's go-to arguments: his opponent isn't wrong because of what they say,  he or she is wrong because of who they are. This is a classic playground maneuver, pin a humiliating nickname on someone, repeat it often enough, and that nickname becomes that person. "Low Energy" Jeb, "Little" Marco, "Lyin'" Ted, "Crooked" Hillary. He flung these epithets around so often that he was spared the trouble of actually making the case that his characterizations were true.

During the primaries I saw an egregious example of how his ad hominem attacks had, for many of his supports, become the truth. Ted Cruz, a politician who I harbor no warm and fuzzy feelings, was leaving a campaign event and encountered a group of Trump supports. Cruz politely, and apparently sincerely, attempted to engage them in conversation. The spokesman for the group could not articulate why he supported Trump over Cruz, but merely repeated, over and over the insulting label "Lyin' Ted". The Trump supporter could not, when pressed by Cruz, give any examples of lies that Cruz told. Eventually Cruz walked off.

The ad hominem that seems to have the most life in it is the term "fake news" or "fake media". Trump took a term that had been applied to fringe web sites and to partisan outlets that purposely planted false stories, and applied it to legitimate news sources. Trump, like his name-calling toward individuals, provides no evidence of the "fakeness", but he just keeps saying it, over and over until his hardcore supporters believe it.

By all, means, if someone is lying, call them on it, if what's in the news is false, speak up, if an opponent has bad ideas, counter them with good ones, but to make a decision or form an opinion based on a schoolyard insult is just lazy.