Name: the Ad Hominem fallacy
Definition:
Ad Hominem literally means “attack on the man,” and refers to a situation where a person seeks to discredit the validity of an argument or claim by attacking the person offering the argument or claim in question.What's wrong with this?: The problem here is that a personal attack doesn’t speak to the issue of the truth or falsity of the claim in question. Maybe the content of the personal attack is truthful (then again, maybe not). Even so, however, this has no bearing on the status of the claim in question as either true or false. To seek to discredit the argument of your opponent by attacking his or her person is irrational and is a diversion tactic of sorts. Two plus two still equals four, even if that equation comes from the mouth of an idiot.
Examples:
(1) Look who’s talking, folks. I would take what he says with a grain of salt.
(2) You’re so stupid that you couldn’t possibly get it right!
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