Straw man

What it is

Misrepresents someone's position, usually by exaggerating, oversimplifying or distorting it, and then attacks that weaker version instead of what they actually said.

Related

• False dilemma fallacy
  Straw men often cast the opponent as holding an extreme position, which sets up a false dilemma.
• Red herring fallacy
  Both avoid the actual position: a straw man replaces it with a weaker version, a red herring replaces the topic.
• Loaded question fallacy
  A loaded question smuggles a distorted version of the other side's views into the question itself.
• Motte-and-bailey fallacy
  In a motte-and-bailey, the defender's modest "motte" claim is exactly what a straw man misses, while the bold "bailey" claim is what they actually argue for.

References

• Wikipedia: Straw man en.wikipedia.org
• Your Logical Fallacy Is: Strawman yourlogicalfallacyis.com
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

More in “Dodging or distorting the argument”