Letter to the editor: Ad hominem
To the editor:
Let the civics lessons begin: An “ad hominem” attack is when you attack the person who made an argument instead of the substance of that person’s argument. So when Donald Trump calls Meryl Streep an “overrated” actor in response to her criticism of his mockery of a disabled journalist, he is making an ad hominem attack, a logically irrelevant comment. It seems to be his most common reaction to criticism.