Appreciate you explaining the downvote. While a more legible argument than “I don’t trust X because of what I perceive to be a long pattern of bad behavior I’m not going to specify much” would be much more useful, I still find this more useful than not commenting at all, so others have at least a pointer to investigate further themselves.
I suppose the downside of purely ad hominem arguments is that it often just smears the target for too often unjustified reasons. But for me a charitable interpretation is that the author of the ad hominem wants to be helpful/informative and just doesn’t have the time (or maybe legible or non-confidential information) to do more than say they don’t trust the person.
Appreciate you explaining the downvote. While a more legible argument than “I don’t trust X because of what I perceive to be a long pattern of bad behavior I’m not going to specify much” would be much more useful, I still find this more useful than not commenting at all, so others have at least a pointer to investigate further themselves.
I suppose the downside of purely ad hominem arguments is that it often just smears the target for too often unjustified reasons. But for me a charitable interpretation is that the author of the ad hominem wants to be helpful/informative and just doesn’t have the time (or maybe legible or non-confidential information) to do more than say they don’t trust the person.