Please sticky a thread detailing what a Strawman Argument is, and how to avoid it

y0r1ck·4/8/2019, 5:00:26 PM·1 votes·2,529 views

The most common fallacy I see on here is the strawman. It's so common that I think the entire boards community would be well served if a thread detailing what a strawman is and how to avoid it was stickied. I'd love if a mod stickied something like this with all common logical fallacies, but this one is too common to ignore.

From wikipedia A straw man is a form of argument and an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man."

From logicallyfallacious.com Logical Form:

Person 1 makes claim Y.

Person 2 restates person 1’s claim (in a distorted way).

Person 2 attacks the distorted version of the claim.

Therefore, claim Y is false.

19 Comments

GatekeeperTDS4/8/2019, 5:28:27 PM3 votes

The problem you get into is the Fallacy Fallacy. A claim isn't necessarily wrong because a fallacy has been committed, and squashing conversation on the boards just because some of us have experience in philosophical arguing is probably not the right approach. :)

Silly Neeko4/8/2019, 5:16:27 PM2 votes

Except people like yourself would always refer to that, rather than just taking it as what it normally is.... which is restating the problem to show that you understand it. It is a very common practice ESPECIALLY in verbal communication. However, because we are not talking verbally there is a delay in responses.

Due to that delay, most people restate the problem, and then refute it because they could have a lack of time. Quite a few people often do not think of this, and just because they see their point was not clear enough, they just go and say that the person is an idiot.

A basic and easy to follow example would be person A saying the problem "black clouds are bad".

Person B assumes that they are talking about storm clouds and says "well, storm clouds are not always bad. They bring quite a bit of rain...." etc.

Person A goes "thats not what im talking about at all. You arnt worth my time." Rather than saying "actually, i was refering more to the black clouds that come from the pollution in the air due to the...." whatever it is.

If people would realize that attempting to restate the problem in a different way is a form of trying to understand the problem better and that obviously there was some confusion (which does happen, and then some are just trolls) rather than always trying to say that they are trying to "strawman" people.... there would be much less miscommunication.

Hammermancer4/8/2019, 5:46:51 PM1 votes

Your point is invalid bc ur rank is bad also strawmen? What have straw people ever done to u! ur a noodle!!1!!

(This reply is blatently a joke)