Anime Pictures; Ad Hominems.

((An ad hominem is a argumentative strategy in which someone uses irrelevant often false statements to personally attack whomever it is they are arguing with, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself in respect to their beliefs.)) So its two things...Why do people start talking about the person their arguing with rather than the actual material of the argument. And why does no one call them out on it? (Typically anyway.) Do you know how many times i'm in a debate, and about half way through. Bet my life, that the person will stop and say something something "You have an anime picture as your profile pic" usually without at all addressing the argument. Yeah I have an idea what the answer to that is and all but... I think its more.... Uhm...Are we really that stupid? Or prideful? People get so butthurt on facebook? Has this ever happened to you? What did you say?

I think the majority of people intelligent enough to discuss controversial issues with a level head in consideration of the facts, also recognize the risk of the damage to their own character that will incur from those who are unreasonable. On the flip side, those who are intelligent enough who DO engage in controversial discussion also feel they must be bold enough to crush any effort to undermine their character. These people are likely going to be less patient as a response, so they can better snuff out anything that is not true, and get immediately to the heart of the matter before people watching the discussion have time to be tricked. What's left as a result is chaos, and you have a hard time having legitimate discussion with people you disagree with. The rest of those who are unintelligent don't know how to respond in a way that will convince anyone of their viewpoint, because they don't know how to convince themselves of their own viewpoint. They rely on adhering to a viewpoint simply for the sake of it, rather than coming to a natural conclusion. The only tactics they have left are repeating arguments others have made, or finding a dirtier way to win. At the same time, someone who actually is intelligent can point out inconsistent logic, and that itself can be seen as an attack on someone's character, though it's more about attacking the logic rather than the person, it unfortunately is inherent to that person.