Falling to name calling, to me, means you have lost the debate. You (the generic “you”) have to resort to that because you cannot win in an actual debate. You cannot prove your point so you try to derail. Or it shows that you have no control… again, loss of a debate.
Well, rarely am I derailable (yes, I know that is not a word). I point out the fact that by insulting me they just admitted defeat or I say that they have one more chance to continue the debate without insulting me, the next insult I walk off with the knowledge that I won.
My all time favorite times this happened was when I was on a Holocaust denier website and, after a long dukem-out debate with one of the deniers, him just skirting the insult zone (he was generally very skilled), he said it:
“I wish Hitler had killed ALL of your family!!” (part of my family was killed in the concentration camps… no I am not a Jew.). He had “filthy gyppo” or something along those lines in that post as well but I cannot remember exactly what he said other than that one line. I just remember the Hitler killing all of my family thing because it was so damned funny.
Classic losing a debate. That could have been “Losing a Debate 101.”
After I pulled myself together (I was laughing so hard I could not breathe), I screenshotted that, and just posted “thankyou for proving my point.” I started posting that screenie all over the board wherever he started denying because, as I knew he would, he edited that out once he realized what he did. I was banned but it was oh so worth it.