[arbitrage]

> sorry for the appeal to authority

You don't need to apologize for your knowledge and experience. We are not engaged in a roman-style rhetoric class where the mandate is to build all arguments upon a set of rules we never agreed to.

The wikipedia list of common logical fallacies is not a guideline to rational discourse in the 21st century.

[ddxxdd]

As far as I'm concerned, apologizing for the appeal to authority signalled that he was open to being criticized and challenged by layman, rather than choosing to belittle those who disagree with him without having his knowledge and experience.

In short, he demonstrated that he wasn't an "elitist".