It's a simple Ad Hominem attack to discredit the speaker. Similar to using "TDS", "snowflake", "triggered" and other terms to avoid talking about the actual subject being brought up.seacoaster wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:56 pm I don't understand why folks seem to trot out the word "hysteria" for this subject matter. The issues raised by the President's behavior are serious, and no one on this board or elsewhere made them up. A member of the IC raised the issues apparently as a matter of conscience him/herself. It's not hysterical to raise the question of whether the President's interaction with this national leader was proper, or a proper use of the power -- the legal and practical authority -- of the Presidency. I'm not "hysterical;" I'm worried that the country has lost its moral way and compass, and that my President operates like a mob boss across borders.
Because they keep repeating it, many of Trump's supporters then believe that his critics are in fact hysterical instead of concerned with ethics and the rule of law. It's hard to have a normal discussion anymore because of it.
The Dem's and some progressives do it too (blanket "racism" and other accusations), but it isn't as pervasive.