TIRED OF AD HOMINEM ATTACKS INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY ADDRESSING IDEAS? So is Conor Freidersdorf from the Atlantic, whose comprehensive takedown of a Guardian review of the bestselling book The Coddling of the American Mind on this basis is a sight to behold. (Disclosure: the book’s co-author is my boss.) And in Quillette, FIRE’s Pamela Paresky goes into further detail about how so much of what passes for “reasoning” these days is really the operation of taboo and “moral pollution.” If you’re one of the many people who just can’t stand political discussions these days (I quit posting to Facebook for just that reason), these articles go a long way towards explaining why.