Occasionally people attack our character rather than our arguments. They should read this by David Riesman:

Defamation of opponents is one of the standard devices of political propaganda. In the fascist tactic, defamation becomes a form of verbal sadism, to be used in the early stages of the conflict, before other forms of sadism are safe. The violence and daring of verbal onslaughts exercise a great appeal over the imagination of lower middle-class folk who live insipid and anxious lives; the apparent daring of their leaders, moreover, is in sharp contrast to the balanced, and often timid, speaking and writing of the teachers, preachers, and politicians who, for them, have represented “democracy.” The fascist speaker does not demand much of his audience, save submission; the terms in which defamation are couched are standardized and frequently repeated; and the defamatory appellations are not argued, they are assumed.

David Riesman, “Democracy and Defamation,” in Civil Liberties and the Arts: Selections from Twice a Year 1938–48, edited by William Wasserstrom (Syracuse University Press, 1964), 156–157.

 

 

Featured image courtesy of Jon Collier, Creative Commons, used by permission.