eli5 Whats a “Straw man fallacy”?
In: Other
“I think abortion should be legal”
*You want to MURDER babies!?!?!?*
Hopefully you can see how easy it is to attack a position that wants to murder babies. Here we are arguing against something that isn’t their actual position, AND we’ve strategically made it a position that is particularly easy to defeat (because who would defend murdering babies as a position?)
Usually a straw man is purposeful and dishonest. The “straw man” is the fake opponent you created that cannot fight back.
It is not the same as misunderstanding a position, which commonly gets accused of creating a straw man.
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