ad hominem
\ ad HOM-uh-nuhm -nem, ahd‐ \ , adjective;
1. appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason.
2. attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument.
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Jamie felt her eye start to twitch. The poster gave her an inexplicable urge to
hit something hard enough to break the bones in her own hand. Of course she wouldn’t actually do something
like that, but she wanted to.
The
poster showed a picture of a wild party that had probably been held at one of
the frats on campus. A bunch of her
fellow students were drinking, dancing, and ultimately making fools of
themselves. And the center of attention
was one girl who had had one drink too many.
So many that she had felt it was a good idea to start removing articles
of clothing. The picture was taken just
before anything really ‘interesting’ was shown, in that all the girl’s
undergarments were still hidden. But the
action of removing her shirt was very clear.
It was the girl’s face that made her eye twitchy. It was her own face, contorted into a goofy
expression. Under the picture was the
slogan “Is this who you want as your next president?”
The
problem with the picture was that Jamie had never gone to such a party. In fact, she hated parties like that. She much preferred small social gatherings to
booze fests like the one in the picture.
It was an obvious photoshop job made by her competition, albeit a very
good one. She had to look very closely
to see any evidence of digital tampering.
Most would see nothing wrong with it.
It was
a blatant lie designed to attack her character instead of her policies. On the one hand, it was a good thing, since
her opponent had to resort to a smear campaign in order to have a shot at
winning. She took that to mean the guy
had no confidence his platform would hold up under hers.
But on
the other, attacks like this were distressingly effective to the right
people. She would need to prove the
picture was fake to debase the attack.
She could do that fairly easily.
She recognized the expression her photoshoped doppelganger was
making. It was a silly thing made in a
photo booth on a whim. In fact, she wasn’t
even alone in the original, as several of her friends were there making similar
expressions. One of them must have
scanned the picture and posted it online.
She knew it was something that could happen, but she hadn’t minded until
now. Fortunately, she had the original
hardcopy, as did most of the others in it, so it wouldn’t be too hard to prove
the forgery.
She
knew even if she proved the poster’s photo was fake, her opponent would try and
come up with something else instead.
Another attack on her person instead of her policies. She mentally went over the
possibilities. She could do the same and
try a more emotional method of gathering support, or she could stick to the
solidity of her platform and hope people saw the strength in that.
Her
thoughts were interrupted by a group of students chuckling quietly behind
her. Once again, she felt her eye start
to twitch. She whirled around to see a
group of students looking at the poster and laughing at her.
“It’s
fake, damn it!” She shouted, a bit
louder than she had wanted to.
“Uh
huh. Sure it is.” Said one of the guys before the group went
off, laughing amongst themselves.
“No
really, it is! Don’t be blinded by baseless
accusations and slander!” She shouted
after them.
The
corner of her mouth started twitching along with her eye. A small, almost menacing laugh started to
form deep in her throat. If her opponent
wanted to play dirty, she could play that game just as well. He had made a critical error. He had put out a smear poster without
covering his tracks. It would be all too
easy to call his bluff. And from there,
well, everything he said would be cast under the suspicion of a liar. She could use this to her advantage. No, she would use it. The election for student president would be
hers, and she would come out of it without a stain from his mudslinging. She would make sure of that. She even had an idea on how to do it.
She
would have one single attack on her opponent.
That of refuting the fake picture and calling him a liar. Then she could use a pure emotional appeal. She would simply play the victim, and wait
for the sympathy to roll in. Yes, if she
couldn’t win with policies, she would win by tugging at the campus’s collective
heartstrings. She smiled wickedly,
already planning just what to say and when to say it. This was going to be fun.
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Kinda says something about our society when the first thing that comes to mind with this word is politics, doesn't it? At least I used the college version instead of the national version, right? That probably would take an entire novel just to get to this point or something.
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