Bonum Certa Men Certa

How Ad Hominem Attacks Work

Ad Hominem



Summary: The shame tactics and pressure on people to not mention particular people is very much evident, more so in social control media (which is publicly accessible for scrutiny); don't be surprised if it soon becomes a taboo to express support for the very people who gave us GNU and Linux (while still fashionable to worship a famous criminal who co-founded Microsoft)

AD HOMINEM attacks (or "to the person") shift focus from ideas/issues to personalities. It's not a novel trick. It's hardly limited to software or technology debates, either; the Latin words correctly remind us of the old roots and breadth.



We recently discussed attacks on the people perceived to be leaders of Free software, notably the founder of GNU and the founder of Linux. People are supposed to feel ashamed about supporting them, as if they endorse chauvinism or something (and need to apologise upfront for such support). Failing that, maybe they'll compare Richard Stallman to Osama bin Laden and Linus Torvalds to Hans Reiser (it's going to be a disaster when he's finally freed from jail, which almost happened recently, wanting to rejoin development of the filesystem named after him). Days ago in Twitter someone insisted to me that Stallman was a practicing pedophile; maybe they'll soon tell us that the Reiser crimes (or failed attempts to reinstate his role) somehow prove Linux "misogyny", inevitably causing the murder of wives. Guilt by association is on the rise in this generation.

"People are supposed to feel ashamed about supporting them, as if they endorse chauvinism or something (and need to apologise upfront for such support)."Ad hominem tactics are cheap but very effective, as whenever an argument may be made which is strong enough (difficult to factually refute) you find a 'shortcut' such as criticising the messenger's appearance (oh look! A beard!!), lifestyle (OH! MY! God! Linus works in his bathrobe sometimes! How rude! The code must be terrible! The bugs will be awful!) or some other nonsensical aspects. Who can blame these people for wanting more privacy in their lives...?

Ad hominem tactics are a nasty, nasty thing. When we slam the EPO we always try to focus on the nature of the abuses rather than the ethnicity or appearance of people like António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli (when we speak about their nationality we typically highlight nepotism, a conflict of interest, or money-laundering aspects). We'd rather focus on what won't change with a mere change of leadership (like Battistelli choosing Campinos as his successor because he's a longtime friend and ally of his).

"Not too shockingly, slurs tend to come from IBM/Red Hat staff (regarding articles that deal with IBM/Red Hat) and one IBM/Red Hat employee surprisingly blocked me even though I had never ever interacted with her in any way (that I can recall)."One reason (a last straw) I've just decided to 'quit' Twitter is this bunch of ad hominem tactics; it would take time to explain all the context (I'd also have to log back into Twitter to take screenshots), but the gist of it is, some people refuse to comment on the actual content of my articles and instead just throw an insult at the site, the messenger, or both. No substance needed; just an insult. That's it. Not too shockingly, slurs tend to come from IBM/Red Hat staff (regarding articles that deal with IBM/Red Hat) and one IBM/Red Hat employee surprisingly blocked me even though I had never ever interacted with her in any way (that I can recall). So why block?

It's possible to incite people based on deliberate distortions. Days ago someone lied about what I had claimed, causing an outrage over something I never even said! Oh, thanks Twitter! Facts optional...

IBM is often not given enough credit for F.U.D. tactics (coined by a former employee); Microsoft 'steals' credit for that, too. But the way I see it, IBM/Red Hat is now engaging even in 'cancel culture'-like tactics. There's no need to actually counter anything presented here in this site; instead, attack Roy. And then attack people who merely mention Roy.

"IBM is often not given enough credit for F.U.D. tactics (coined by a former employee); Microsoft 'steals' credit for that, too."How very mature. What's wrong with Roy anyway? Nothing. They specify nothing. It's all innuendo. As one of them put it just hours ago: "I'm mad at myself for clicking that link before I realized what site it goes to."

OK, what's wrong with that site?

No, nothing specified. Maybe upset that the employer is being criticised for something there (never mind if about 80% of the things we write or wrote about both IBM and Red Hat are positive). What possibly upsets me more is actually attempts to make other people (even bots!) untweet mentions of Techrights. This is how 'cancel culture' works.

Congrats, IBM. You're just acquired a bunch of angry children (and grossly overpaid for them).

Like layers of an onion or a social graph-based elimination strategy these people target the 'circle' sympathetic to those whom they try to oust, silence, discredit. Remember what was done to Alex Oliva months ago because he had long supported Richard Stallman? He has been relatively quiet since then. Intimidation leads to self-censorship, which in turn enables bad things to continue unabated, without critical voices causing outrage/backlash.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft XBox is Dying as More Retailers Stop Stocking It and Massive Layoffs Planned Again
Microsoft is circling down the drain
Linux and the Freedom Paradox
Linux is losing freedom if some external actors who only use Microsoft tools for development wrest control
Watch the FSF Party Live (via Livestream)
It's in WebM format, which is widely supported by now
Advocacy of Software Freedom Changed, LUGs Became Less Relevant
The way we see it, support groups like LUGs sort of outlived their usefulness when it became easier to install GNU/Linux
 
Links 05/10/2025: Slow News Day and Wondering About the Canada Post Walkout
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/10/2025: Telnet Debugging and The Programmer’s Brain
Links for the day
More Than "Just a Rumour": XBox Seems to Have Just Died
At this point, why would any studio out there target or partner with XBox?
How to Tell Your Community, Project or Company is Being Infiltrated by Saboteurs
How to identify nefarious social engineering
The Fortieth Birthday of the FSF Made Us Extremely Happy
It feels like the 'hacker community' is regrouping to discuss things and prepare for the next Big Challenge
Chat Control 2 Them, Not 2 U
Follow the advice of Dr. Patrick Breyer
Mozilla: Throw Away Your "Old" PC and Enable "Digital Rights Management (DRM)"
This is heading in a bad direction
Controlling Our Computing for Another Forty Years
40 years of freedom
Motivational Small Place to Run Large Sites
We deem this scenery motivational and inspiring
Techrights' Text Version (Daily Bulletin) Turns Five This Month
our plain-text bulletins are turning 5 this month
We'll Continue Covering the Moribund OSI and Other Dysfunctional if Not Hostile Institutions
Stefano Maffulli's departure is due to his defection and due to him failing the mission in pursuit of money (his salary)
Links 05/10/2025: Lufthansa Layoffs (4,000) and More Spotify Woes (Aside From Massive Debt)
Links for the day
The Free Software Foundation's Livestream Has Ended, Video/s Might be Online Next
I've asked whether they'll upload video of some of the event; I still wait for an answer
The Register MS Does Not Know the Difference Between Microsoft GitHub and GitLab
At the time of writing (October 5) the article from "Thu 2 Oct 2025" remains uncorrected
"Bullshit Generators" (What RMS Calls LLMs) and Fake Images Already Target the FSF
Why does Google News promote fake articles about the FSF while omitting all the real ones?
Software Patents as a Bubble
Don't invest resources in hype; if you detect a bubble, run away from it
Links 05/10/2025: Political Leftovers, Climate Change, and Security Incidents
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 04, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 04, 2025
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
When Microsoft "Integrates" Something With "AI" It Means It's Losing Money and Is Generally Hopeless
how did Bing fare after 36 months of LLM slop being hyped up as "replacement" for search?
Most Certificates Don't Improve Security, They Mostly Increase Downtime (for No Good Reason)
The 'Gemini sites' (capsules) are a growing force
The statCounter Site Has Data Integrity Problems
Maybe we'll get back to statCounter when its data becomes more "stable" again
10 Ways to Combat Software Patents
software patents are loathed also by proprietary software developers
"Just a Little Bit of Meat..."
Free software "absolutism" is not a radical stance, more so if the only "radical" belief the user possesses is that he or she must be in control of his or her software, and by extension his or her computer
Compromised by NVIDIA Proprietary Library
Meanwhile in Boston there are "[r]oundtable talk with FSF volunteers (both in-person and online)"
Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme
Free Software Foundation Party Has Begun
We shall be focusing a lot on software patents today
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day