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Old 02-03-2019, 08:58 AM
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whell whell is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Metro Detroit
Posts: 13,016
Not much has changed here at all. Some of you used to like to wave around this link to try improve discourse here. Apparently you've not taken the time to read or comprehend its contents.

Straw man fallacies are a cheap and easy way to make one’s position look stronger than it is. Using this fallacy, opposing views are characterized as “non-starters,” lifeless, truthless, and wholly unreliable. By comparison, one’s own position will look better for it. You can imagine how straw man fallacies and ad hominems can occur together, demonizing opponents and discrediting their views.

This fallacy can be unethical if it’s done on purpose, deliberately mischaracterizing the opponent’s position for the sake of deceiving others. But often the straw man fallacy is accidental, because one doesn’t realize he or she is oversimplifying a nuanced position, or misrepresenting a narrow, cautious claim as if it were broad and foolhardy.


Some of you have clung to your own manufactured fallacies for so long that you've become invested in them. Sux to be you.

Last edited by whell; 02-03-2019 at 09:06 AM.
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