Tone policing

What it is

Dismisses a point because of the way it is expressed (angry, emotional, impolite) rather than because of its content.

Related

• Ad hominem fallacy
  Judging someone's manner rather than their message is a mild ad hominem that dodges the content.
• Red herring fallacy
  Complaints about tone change the subject from the substance to the style.

References

• Wikipedia: Tone policing en.wikipedia.org
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

More in “Dodging or distorting the argument”