On Ad Hominem Attacks ...

Hi All -

There have been a disturbing number of ad hominem attacks, personal digs, personal insults, outright lies, and such on this board of late. Some target me; some target others. The administrators have removed many; some have escaped their attention.

I personally think it's a sad state of affairs when folks who are inexorably bound to one another by an amorphous commonality, a sound that only they can hear, feel compelled to lash out at one another - but it is what it is. Perhaps they feel empowered by the coward's cloak of anonymity afforded by the Internet. I do not know. Fortunately only a relative handful are involved ... but they do seem to make a lot of noise!

I have a suggestion. When encountering an ad hominem attack on the board, consider what it says about the person making the attack rather than the person being attacked. Also, consider that if the person making the attack were able to put forth a cogent argument supporting the point he or she was trying to make, then that person would not feel the need to resort to such an attack in the first place.

Dr. Stephen Nagler