When facing a shortcoming or flaw, rather than dealing with the flaw, accusing another of the same flaw and also changing the topic to their person
“Ad hominem” means against the person. “Tu quoque” means “You too.”
Example:
Rocky Rockbuilder: Every so-called evidence for the molecules-to-humanity story depends on arbitrary assumptions. By divine revelation, God declares that He created all the basic kinds of living organisms, plus the entire universe, in just six days.
Sandy Sandbuilder: Since you’re uneducated and unintelligent, you don’t realize that you’re just assuming your so-called “divine revelation,” so we’re on equal footing.
In this discussion, Rocky mentions a problem with Sandy’s claim. Rather than dealing with the problem, Sandy accuses Rocky of having the same problem as Sandy has but extending this accusation to direct attention to the person of Rocky, which makes it ad hominem.
Persuaders commit ad hominem tu quoque fallacies as smokescreens. They use them to hide major flaws in their arguments. When a rational thinker exposes a fallacious thinker’s flawed reasoning, rather than acknowledging or solving the problem, the fallacious thinker uses this fallacy.
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