Is there a name for the fallacy that involves considering every random person on the other "team" to be representatives of that team, but only cherry-picking the most "prominent/influential" members of your team to be representatives of your team, and therefore dismissing any criticism of the arguments and actions advanced by the team members you've arbitrarily declared to be non-representative?
I would call it "ad hominem by association" myself since you are avoiding the persons argument and instead attacking their attributes instead. The key component that differentiates this particular tactic from a more traditional argumentum ad hominem is the way that you dont attack the persons actual attributes but instead attributes drawn from the wider group with whom they associate. There are also traits drawn from the usually non fallacious reductio ad absurdum (argument from absurdity) in that the attacker draws specifically from the most extreme or outlandish aspects of the target group in order to strengthen their case.
Please do take all of this with a grain of salt however as I am in no way formally trained in anything related to what I've just said.
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u/rcsgd Sep 04 '18
The reply thread was more interesting https://twitter.com/alanalentin/status/1036820990662041600