"Poisoning the well is a logical fallacy (a type of ad hominem argument) in which a person attempts to place an opponent in a position from which he or she is unable to reply."
(https://www.thoughtco.com/poisoning-the-well-fallacy-1691639)
Examples:
A) Pennélope writes, When I was in high school, a lot of students who had already taken classes with certain teachers went around the school sharing their particular experiences and thoughts about them. Most of the reviews were horrible. The anticipation for the first day of the school year, getting to meet the terrible person they'd paint the teachers to be, I came to realize they weren't bad teachers they were just strict and had certain methods which did not please some students. At the end of the day they were great educators. This is an example of poisoning the well because they portrayed these teachers as terrible educators when in reality the students just didn't agree with their methods and narrated the story as if they were bad people.
The argument here could be something like, "You won't like those teachers because they are bad people," or even, "You shouldn't like those teachers because I didn't like them," or perhaps, "I suffered through that class so you should suffer, too."
B) I’m a member of Congress who is up for re-election. I learn that I’m going to be challenged for the office by an attractive, charismatic local lawyer. I’m worried that he could win, so I start to spread rumors about him. I say that he’s a pedophile, and I dig up an old legal case in which he was accused of molesting a young girl. He was found not guilty, but I keep bringing the issue up, and even suggest that he might have paid off the judge. On election day, voters elect me. I’ve successfully “poisoned the well.”
C) Here are two more explanations that include examples:
* https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/140/Poisoning-the-Well
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