Straw Man Fallacy

A Straw Man Fallacy is an informal fallacy that involves the misrepresentation of an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack or refute.

Context:
- It can (often) includes exaggerating, fabricating, or misrepresenting the original argument.
- It can try to create an illusion of having defeated the opponent's stance by distorting,
- It can involve distorting or oversimplifying an argument to make it easier to attack.
- It can be used in debates and discussions to mislead or persuade others.
- It can avoid actual points made in the original argument.
- It can be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
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Example(s):
- A politician oversimplifying an opponent's policy proposal to make it seem more extreme or unreasonable than it is.
- A debater exaggerating the implications of an opponent's argument to make it seem illogical or ridiculous.
- An individual in a discussion fabricating aspects of an argument that the opponent never made, to easily refute it.
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Counter-Example(s):
- A Steelman Argument, where one reformulates an opponent's argument to the strongest possible version before attempting to refute it.
- A Logical Argument, which engages directly with the actual points and evidence presented in the original argument.
See: Informal Fallacy, Continuum International Publishing Group, Polemic.

References

(Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man Retrieved:2023-9-3.
- A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man".
  The typical straw man argument creates the illusion of having refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and the subsequent refutation of that false argument ("knock down a straw man") instead of the opponent's proposition. Straw man arguments have been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly regarding highly charged emotional subjects. Straw man tactics in the United Kingdom may also be known as an Aunt Sally, after a pub game of the same name, where patrons throw sticks or battens at a post to knock off a skittle balanced on top.