Calling someone names is not an
ad-hominem. Making accusations about a person's character can be a valid inference based on their behavior. What makes an
ad-hominem is thinking that a person's character (or other attributes) has any bearing on the correctness of their argument.
For example:
"X is a bad person, therefore their argument is invalid" is an ad-hominem. Bad people can still make valid arguments.
"X's argument is both invalid and in bad faith, therefore they are a bad person" is a logical inference.
