Argumentum ad cellarium

{{Internet}} {{logic}} {{cquote|Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar<br />
Downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar<br />
And posting "me too" like some brain-dead AOLer<br />
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller<br />
You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Helen Keller|||"Weird Al" Yankovic<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos "Weird Al" Yankovic - It's All About The Pentiums]</ref>}}
An '''argumentum ad cellarium''' ([[Latin]] for "Argument to the cellar") is a poorphobic argument that someone is wrong and/or immoral for not being able to afford to move out of their parents basement.  It is an informal [[logical fallacy]] and variety of ''[[ad hominem]]'' attack sometimes found in debates and comments on the [[Internet]]. The argument is used to dismiss someone or their views by accusing or assuming them of lacking in the usual financial, social, and living skills that [[society]] expects, and thus being forced to resort to living in their parents' basement (moreover in general implicitly as just a "spare tire" to their parents' social relations). 

Although basement rooms are most commonly used for extra special derogatory factors (because they imply not just dependency but very extensive submissiveness/passivity), variants include demanding that someone get a job, a girlfriend, or have [[sex]] — indicating, obviously, [[virgin|inadequacy]].

==Form==
{{syl
|2= Presents argument '''A'''.
|4=([[Enthymeme|unstated]]) '''P1''' lives in their mom's basement.
|5=C|6=Therefore, '''A''' is false}}

==Poorphobia==
The median cost of a house in the USA is between 200-800k thousand dollars sale price, depending on the state.<ref>https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/median-home-price/</ref>  The median individual wage in the  in the USA is close to 60k.<ref>https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/average-salary-in-us</ref>  Therefore, independent housing is unaffordable for even the median American, necessitating complex debt schemes to give an illusion of homeownership.  Most Americans do not actually own their home, but are paying a bank or a similar entity to reside  in it.

For the poor, the situation is of course worse, and would require at least a decade of non-stop saving to be able to own a typical house in full and as an individual.  Therefore, to make fun of someone who fail to meet the insane costs of housing, or to go in debt for such, suggests a complete disconnect from material conditions and empiricism of the median American, and comes across as downright hostile to those who are poor.

==Ableist and other undertones==
{{main|Ableism}}
{{cquote|The "living in your mom's basement" trope paints a particular image of someone considered "worthless" and a "loser" because they are not fully independent as an adult... The [stereotype] is also VERY autistic coded. Do away with it.|||Lilo, an autistic advocate<ref>[https://twitter.com/A_Silent_Child/status/1085718756985196544 Tweet by Lilo the Autistic Queer]</ref>}}

Mocking people for (actually or supposedly) living in their parents' basement isn't exactly kind to disabled people. Due to issues like hiring discrimination, lack of services for adults with disabilities, and the fact that ''it's legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage,''<ref>[https://www.vox.com/2018/5/3/17307098/workers-disabilities-minimum-wage-waiver-rock-river-valley-self-help A loophole in [U.S. federal law allows companies to pay disabled workers $1 an hour] - Vox</ref> disabled people might not be able to live on their own.

There are also other forms of prejudice associated. Erica Lagalisse has pointed out that criticism of basement-dwellers often has class undertones, with poor people being more likely to live in their parents' basement, as well as typically reflecting bias against the less [[Education|educated]] (being less educated might be reason for questioning what someone says, and you may seek to politely correct them, but it is not reason for insulting or mocking).<ref name=lagalisse>''Occult Features of Anarchism: With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples'', Erica Lagalisse, PM Press, 2018</ref> Because basements are typically found in suburban or small-town settings rather than in big cities, it could also reflect metropolitan bias against those living in less fashionable locales, or in the central/non-coastal US states far from the likes of New York City or San Francisco.

There is also an element of xenophobia and US-centrism to this stereotype. Living with one's parents is more socially acceptable in many Asian nations, including India and China, where multi-generational houses are the norm and there is no hurry for adult children to "flee the nest," so to speak. It is primarily Western nations (especially the US and Canada) that expect young adults to get jobs and places of their own by the time they graduate from college. 

Finally, there's the fact that it's primarily men who are hit with this insult, as women [[Double standard|often get a pass]] for living with their parents.

==See also==
*Martin's Law ([[Scott Alexander]]): "If during an online argument anyone accuses their interlocutor of living in their parents' basement, the argument is over and the accuser has lost."<ref>[https://archive.is/FC1qR Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz - Martin's Law] Live Journal, 10 February 2011, archived from the original.</ref>
{{otherlang
|zh=地下室论证}}

==References==
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[[Category:Pseudo-Latin phrases]]
[[Category:Internet culture]]
[[Category:Ad hominem]]
[[Category:Ableism]]

Categories: Pseudo-Latin phrases, Internet culture, Ad hominem, Ableism