missingmytowel t1_jecezjs wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:07 AM

Reply to comment by Jorgwalther in Russia detains WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges by jack_lafouine

It means some people feel the need to appear much smarter than they really are in an effort to prove a failed point.

Just amusing to see people use fancy words to get their point across and then you look in their comment history and realize they never speak like that any other time.

Very smarmy

Jorgwalther t1_jecg1tg wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:14 AM

Ah ok. What kind of “fancy words” are you referring to?

missingmytowel t1_jeck8ye wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:46 AM

When was the last time you seen someone use ad hominem?

I can only think of maybe two or three times I've known somebody to use it ever. This person being one.

When you don't talk like that on a normal basis (like pretty much everyone else) doing so in an argument in an attempt to establish superiority of intelligence through language used is smarmy.

What's worse is they don't do this to appear smarter to the person they are talking to. They do it so they appear smarter to observers and other commentators. Because they know they lost the argument to the person involved so they might as well try and win the crowd.

Smarmy 101

Our former president was the professor of that course.

Jorgwalther t1_jecmwnd wrote on March 31, 2023 at 1:06 AM

Oh I see people say ad hominem several times a day on Reddit, it’s pretty common when people are arguing in my experience