eli5 Whats a “Straw man fallacy”?
In: Other
Say you’re on one side of a fight, and the people on the other side are making reasonable arguments you find difficult to argue against, but you want to get your way anyways. What do you do?
Build a scarecrow. They’re not a real person, but they sort of look like one. Then use it like a puppet, and have the scarecrow take the opposing side. Only, have the scarecrow take the opposing side _badly._ Have your fake person present fake, ridiculous arguments that no sane person would agree with.
Then, argue against your own scarecrow. The scarecrow you made is on the same side as your actual opponents, so you pretend that, by winning the argument against the scarecrow, you’ve now refuted all the sane, reasonable arguments that the real people were making.
You aren’t _really_ winning the argument against the opposing side, but that only matters if the opposing side recognizes your straw man and calls you out on it. Their other two options are that they could agree with you, joining forces against your straw man, which you can treat like their surrender and your victory. Or, they can fall into the trap of trying to defend your straw man, at which point they adopt your new fabricated arguments as their own, and it will be easier to win future arguments the legitimate way.
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