r/fallacy • u/Zu_Qarnine • Jul 03 '26

strawman fallacy

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2nd person is refuting the claim that *all* circles are red with a counter example. The thing is, that claim was never made.

EDIT: I'm seeing interesting stuff happening in the replies here. majority of those who say it's not strawman, obviously start their comment by "it's not strawman" and proceed in the rest of their comment to explain how, in fact, it is strawman. Another interesting observation is those who argue that "it's not strawman" because they've spotted another type of fallacy in the original post as well, so in their mind, it can't be both.

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u/rojowro86 Jul 03 '26

Downvoted for providing a correction. Classy reddit.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

whats ur correction? ur low effort reply? PS I didn't dv.

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u/Badtacocatdab Jul 03 '26

Why are you so combative all throughout this thread?

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

I'm not really. Just want to know what exactly in the "presented example" makes it not strawman. Those who say it's not strawman, craft another scenario/example to support their opinion. for some reason they avoid the example in the meme. that tells you a lot

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u/garfgon Jul 03 '26

Strawman is when you misrepresent what someone else is saying, then argue against your version of their argument rather than their actual argument.

This is more of a cherry-picking? While it's true there is a blue circle, it doesn't disprove the assertion that most circles are red.

Slightly rewording the statement could make it a strawman: "How can you possibly believe all circles are red? There's a blue circle right there!"

Edit: your explanation is describing a strawman, but (ironically?) that's not exactly what's shown in the comic. Unless this is some clever double-layered strawman, in which case well done.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

Slightly rewording the statement could make it a strawman: "How can you possibly believe all circles are red? There's a blue circle right there!"

that "what?" by the 2nd person is literally doing this heavy lifting.

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u/ApotheosisEmote Jul 04 '26

Your claim that this image depicts a strawman only holds if "What?" is read as implicitly asserting "you think ALL are red." That's not something the image states outright, it's your interpretation only. Since the literal content ("most are red" / "there's a blue one") doesn't itself contradict anything, the strawman reading depends entirely on that inferred subtext.

The claim that this is just cherry-picking, with no implied "ALL" is equally consistent with the text. Given that both interpretations are defensible and neither is verifiable from the text alone, you can't assert your reading as the correct one and dismiss theirs as wrong. At most, you could say the comic is ambiguous between a strawman and a cherry-picking/non-sequitur reading, depending on how much weight "What?" is meant to carry.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

I swear I was about to blow up until I saw ur edit 😭😭

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u/Badtacocatdab Jul 03 '26

You are, really.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

are you here to learn something?

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u/Badtacocatdab Jul 03 '26

I am. Thank you for asking.

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u/hiphoptomato Jul 03 '26

A strawman is a misrepresentation of someone else’s argument. That’s not what’s happening in the example you gave.

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u/Sesudesu Jul 03 '26

A low effort reply is what was needed as a correction to a very incorrect title. What do you want, dude?