When it's okay to be Hitler

Today’s propaganda isn’t so much about convincingly lying — it’s about convincingly controlling reputations. Intellectual fashions. What you can say at the dinner table, and what you can’t.

Ad hominem is one of the main ways propagandists control what’s true by controlling what’s fashionable.

The Ad Hominem fallacy isn’t just calling people hilarious names like “butthead.”

It’s saying “because of [any personal attribute], your argument is invalid.”

Here are some personal attributes that qualify:

• conspiracy theorist

• racist/bigot

• left/right wing

• extremist

• being literally Hitler

If your goal is to get the world’s best information about a topic, look extra closely at information whose only counterargument is ad hominem.