Traitorous critic...

One less thorn in a writer's paw.

Happy Friday…

Fiction doesn’t hold a candle to real life. Funny thing happened this week.

I’d written a post about stupid tin-foil hat theories about Medium and explained some real problems that are happening there right now. It’s done pretty well for a Medium post. Writing about Medium isn’t a bell-ringer for me, but it’s had over a thousand views, 6K claps, and 77 comments so far.

Apparently, the piece stuck in some writer’s teeth like a popcorn shard, so the writer wrote a rebuttal. The writer didn’t name me, but the piece systematically rebutted every point I made. I had to laugh reading it. Know why?

Because all the answers (rebuttals) sounded kind of like this…

If you don’t like it, don’t use it.

Lol. There’s a Latin phrase for that. Argumentum ergo decedo.

You’re stupid, so you’re wrong?

Back around 300 B.C., Aristotle noticed that when you bring up an issue, someone will inevitably criticize the person instead of responding to the issue at hand.

If you’ve been on the internet for more than a week, you know what that looks like.

Yeah? Well, you’re stupid, so you’re wrong.

All you have to do is write about some loaded topic — feminism, politics, money, climate change — and you’ll get people who attack the writer instead of actually responding to the issue.

Aristotle called that “ad hominem” which is Latin for “at the person.”

Basically, he just noted that some people don’t respond to the issue, they just criticize the person who brought it up. Deflecting at it’s finest. Over the years, philosophers noticed there’s a whole bunch of ways people deflect onto the person.

So they started naming them. Like an ice cream parlour.

When you criticize the person (ie well, you’re a moron so you’re wrong) — that’s an abusive ad hominem. In Latin, it’s literally “abuse at the person.”

But there’s tons more. The association fallacy, the Tu quoque and so on. All the different ways people can “deflect” instead of responding to the issue. Or staying silent and saying nothing, because that was always an option.

Argumentum ergo decedo

That’s another real common one. In English, it’s the traitorous critic fallacy.

Here’s how you recognize it: “If you don’t like it, then leave.”

—You going to criticize the rules here? Then leave.
—You going to criticize America? Move somewhere else.
—You going to criticize Bezos? Go shop somewhere else.

It’s deflection designed to shut people down from talking about problems. It’s not any different than the person who says “you’re a moron” — just a bit more sophisticated.

Instead of just hurling an insult, they try to make you feel like a traitor for bringing up a problem. But you’re not. Not if the problem is valid. Hence — fallacy.

No one is a traitor for bringing up a valid issue. Telling them to leave if they don’t like it doesn’t solve the problem. It just sweeps problems under the carpet where they fester and mold and never get resolved if they’re never discussed.

So now when you see that kind of crap on the internet, and especially if you get some of that dished to you — you’ll see it for what it is, and not let it get to you.

One less thorn in a writer’s paw.

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Welcome and thank you, Mike…

Thanks & welcome to Mike Doherty, our first guest writer at History of Women. His piece is kicking some butt. I really enjoyed it and hope you do, too.

P.S. Instructions for submitting (until I create a page) are in last weeks newsletter.

• Eileen Vollick Wanted To Fly. No Woman in Canada Had Ever Tried

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To say “I don't have time” is like saying “I don't want to.”

Lao Tzu

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What I wrote this week…

• My 3 Wishes For Medium After Reading Ev’s Voluntary Exit Post

• Three Super-Short Books That Will Change How You Think

• How Our Bedtime Habits Can Ruin Our Sleep and Make Us Sick

• Inside the Medieval Castle Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn Honeymooned At

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If you enjoyed, please click the heart. It’s like clapping and lets me know what you enjoy. Have a great weekend.

xo,
Linda