Re: [lbo-talk] Slaves of Academe: We Don’t Need Another Hero

[Gar Lipow]

On 3/23/06, Gar Lipow <the.typo.boy at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think, by the way, that this is a case where ad hominem in the
> original sense is legitimate. Human time is limited. Certain mistakes
> entitle one to cease to pay attention to those making them, to
> concentrate on other sources more likely to provide a better signal to
> noise ratio.

And this is why e-mail is a really lousy medium  for me. By nature I'm
a re-writer not a writer.  As phrased, that is not (of course) ad
hominem  But  I actually skimmed the article, saw some arguments I
might have considered from another source, but decided that the
opening statement gave me license to be intellectually lazy. I'm
simply going to assume the rest of what the author says is untrue
until I hear them from another source who does not include arguments
that green is purple. That is ad-hominem, judging an arguement by the
source; but I simply  am not going to take the time to analyze or fact
check arguments from such a person.