Talk:Appeal to ridicule/Archives/2013

More questionable examples
Pretty much all the examples at the end of the article seem like pretty clear cut ad hominem to me. You're not a PhD, psychologist, not married, not a parent etc. are all statements directed at the person making the claim, not at the claim itself. I would also question the statement "Appeal to Ridicule is often found in the form of challenging one's credentials or maturity", which also seems like ad hominem to me if it is not in the specific form "The argument X would only be put forth by someone unqualified or immature." Even then I think it incorporates too much of other types of fallacies, e.g. ad hominem (you're immature, unqualified) or ad populum (people in general think otherwise) to make a clear example. Does anyone agree? OlaIsacsson (talk) 12:22, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

That is my impression exactly, and a point I would have brought up if no one else had Troiscoins (talk) 01:23, 11 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Agreed, I removed them here. --207.206.136.179 (talk) 14:11, 25 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Attacking Faulty Reasoning lists "resorting to ridicule or humor" as an apparently more general fallacy where humor is used instead of a relevant argument. —Mrwojo (talk) 02:50, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

"You are just a child, what do you know," to a child, is an Ad Hominem. "Grow up," to an adult, is an appeal to ridicule, being an invitation for others to laugh at the supposed childishness of the opinion rather than a comment about any irrelevant but ostensibly true statement about the person. Is this difference clear?

I don't like the current example about Obama. Although it is an appeal to ridicule, for the sake of avoiding political bias, I'd prefer a fictional example. 217.155.36.170 (talk) 12:50, 12 February 2013 (UTC)