Attacking the Critic
Attacking the critic is the attempt to discredit an idea or argument by disparaging the person who expressed it. People typically resort to this error of reaction after their ideas or behaviors have been called into question.Instead of responding to the real issue, the actual ideas or behaviors that have been questioned, they create a diversionary issue—the real or imagined failings, or the motivation, of the person who raised the issue. When Paula Jones accused then president Clinton of having made improper sexual advances toward her, one Clinton spokesman made the comment that almost anything could be accomplished “by dragging a hundred dollar bill through a trailer court,” implying that Jones’s character was suspect.
When other women came forward with charges that Clinton had harassed them, the president’s advisors adopted what became known as the “nuts and sluts” strategy—that is, they insinuated that anyone who made such a charge must be mentally unstable or sexually promiscuous and therefore untrustworthy. Later, when Dick Morris, a former advisor to Clinton, joined Fox News as a consultant and offered his analysis of Clinton’s behavior and the alleged cover-up strategies, some Clinton loyalists claimed that nothing Morris said was credible because he himself had committed sexual indiscretions and also was disgruntled over his loss of status in the White House.
攻击评论家
攻击评论家是试着通过轻蔑一个人表达的观点来使一个观点和争论不可信。人们通常会在他们的想法或行为被质疑后采取这种反应错误。不是回应已经被问的问题，真实的观点和行为，他们创造了一个发散性问题——提出这些问题的人，真实或想象中的失败，或者动机。当宝拉·琼斯指责当时的克林顿总统对她进行了不正当的性行为时，一个克林顿发言人做了一个评论说，几乎任何事情都可以实现“拖拽一百元钞票穿过拖车场”暗示琼斯的人品是可疑的。
当其他妇女提出克林顿骚扰她们的指控时，总统的顾问们采取了后来被称为“疯子和荡妇”的战略——即是，他们暗示提出控告的所有人都一定是心智失常或者性乱交的所以没有相信的价值。后来，当迪克·莫里斯，克林顿的前顾问，作为一个顾问加入福克斯新闻并且提供了他对克林顿行为和所谓的掩盖策略的分析，一些克林顿的效忠者声称莫里斯说的没有能信的因为他自己犯了性方面的轻率行为，也对他失去白宫地位感到不满。
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