description

Circumstantial ad hominem is usually a pretty blatant attempt to give the impression that a conflict of interest is being exposed.

The focus is on their personal circumstances, but not necessarily on their character, and can be distinguished somewhat from abusive ad hominem, which tends to be more focused on character assassination.

The term 'ad hominem' is Latin for 'about the person'. This class of fallacy refers to comments about the opponent that are intended to either convince the opponent to stop arguing, or to convince the audience to stop listening to his arguments.

examples

"Lower taxes would make my opponent richer, so of course he considers them a good idea."

"The President supports drilling for oil in Alaska, but of course, because he made a lot of money in the oil industry"