I was just on the stupid.ca site (for those of you who are not Canadian or not familiar with the commercials this website is dedicated to educating youth on the dangers of smoking).  Ontario is becoming a smoke-free environment passing by-laws preventing smoking in resturants, bars ... etc.  At the present time there are few public locations that smoking is permitted and they are mainly clubs where membership is required.  In the next few years the government will be enacting laws that prevent smoking even in these locations, causing smokers to have no choice but to smoke in their homes.  Personally, I am not opposed to this decision; I am a non-smoker who enjoys not having to breath in smoke when I go out; however, this is a tangent from my original beef.  As I said I was on the website and I went into the message boards and was reminded of one of my biggest pet peeves.  As on many message boards the threads had gone from a discussion point into a debate into a verbal attack of posters.  As an avid arguer I have noticed that this occurs far too often.  By insulting the person you are arguing against you are not disproving or even calling into question their point.  This form of response is merely a diversion intended to draw attention away from the fact that you are in too far over your head.  If you cannot debate your point without insulting the person you are arguing against maybe you should research the topic a little more before participating.

Directly attacking a person during an argument is not the only form of debate that cannot be considered valid.  When you simply state that a person is wrong or that their opinion is stupid you are not offering a valid argument you are simply attacking them in a more subtle manner. 

Personally I think it is important for us to learn how to argue our points correctly.  A valid argument is one that attacks the validity of the argument, not the person who is arguing that point.  Whether we agree with an argument or not it is important to respect the opinion of the person we are arguing against by not belittling them.