# 22. Reputation Control ## 22.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 22.5.4. Dirty hands argument In a similar way, a political enemy can seek to damage an opponent's reputation by using a fallacious argument that implies that the target person, social group, or party cannot do or mean well because of some past offence, association or mistake. Sometimes this is used to smear opponents using a tactic of "guilt by association", where the reputation of a political adversary is damaged by implying that they are associates of some criminal or morally undesirable person, group or institution. Dirty hands arguments are often unbalanced, historically inaccurate, or paint a picture based on speculation. A good example is how a perfectly liberal politician can be dishonestly maligned as being an extreme nationalist or racist, simply because some extreme right-wing political group has expressed approval for some of the victim's manifesto.