Understanding the Straw Man or "Aunt Sally" Attack, the Internet's most common debate failure.
Last edited Wed Sep 10, 2014, 06:28 PM - Edit history (3)
"A straw man is a common type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on the misrepresentation of an opponent's argument.
To be successful, a straw man argument requires that the audience be ignorant or uninformed of the original argument.
The so-called typical "attacking a straw man" argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man"
and then to refute or defeat that false argument ("knock down a straw man" instead of the original proposition.
This technique has been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly in arguments about highly charged emotional issues where a fiery, entertaining "battle" and the defeat of an "enemy" may be more valued than critical thinking or understanding both sides of the issue.
In the United Kingdom the argument is also known as an Aunt Sally, after the pub game of the same name where patrons throw sticks or battens at a model of an old woman's head."
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Recognize it and ignore it, the straw man creator can not then play with himself.
Since the target audience is the original author, that would be you, who should be aware of the fallacy, why would you bother?
Illustrated example of senile old man and ex not too bad actor using an empty metal chair as the straw man before an audience of right wing idiots that applaud logical fallacies because, well, they are idiots:
= new reply since forum marked as read
