Difference between revisions of "Fallacy:Attacking a strawman"

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"Guavas have the highest Vitamin C content of any fruit."
"Guavas have the highest Vitamin C content of any fruit."


"You don't like limes or oranges?
"Limiting yourself to one fruit is ridiculous.
What about tangerines? They have a lot too.
You don't like limes or oranges?
Limiting yourself to one fruit is ridiculous."
What about tangerines? You need other vitamins as-well."

Latest revision as of 04:12, 27 January 2022

A Strawman is a form of argument and an informal fallacy.

It is when the party attempting to refute an argument, instead creates a new argument within their retort (usually superficial, non-sequitur or simple to refute) and goes on to rebut said replaced argument - avoiding the initial point altogether. This can be done through exaggeration, misrepresentation or complete fabrication of the persons argument into an absurdity.


Person A presents argument: X

Person B distorts argument X into argument: Y

Person B refutes argument Y


Example:

"Guavas have the highest Vitamin C content of any fruit."

"Limiting yourself to one fruit is ridiculous. You don't like limes or oranges? What about tangerines? You need other vitamins as-well."