4 ms·
a straw man is telling person A that argument B is wrong, therefore person A is wrong, when in fact person A was making argument C. it is a trick to confuse yo
by simondedalus 13y ago
a straw man is telling person A that argument B is wrong, therefore person A is wrong, when in fact person A was making argument C.
it is a trick to confuse your opponent and any spectators. it is most often employed by people too stupid to discern between argument B and argument C in the first place, which is to say it is most often employed inadvertently.
amusingly, most times when people accuse someone else of making a straw man argument, they then proceed to immediately make a straw man argument themselves in explaining the claim.
edit: mistyped.
- M2Ys4U 13y agoA straw man proposal is different than a straw man argument.
- josephlord 13y agoWell they are both designed to be knocked down/beaten up. The straw man proposal is your offering to the forum to beat and the argument is your twisting/manipulating an opponents position or argument to enable you to knock down the straw man and claim a win in the argument.
- simondedalus 13y agoalso, the point of a straw man proposal isn't exactly to be refined... it's to get jump off ideas from the straw man's trivial refutation.