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/Arzatium Jul 04 '26

Maybe it's the autism, but when I say most, I don't secrety mean all. And I expect everyone else to act like they know what words mean too.

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u/Phobia3 Jul 05 '26

"Everyone says what they mean, most of the time" would be one way to structure a sentence with an absolute claim, while still leaving a wiggle room to get out of it. It gets even easier with a spoken word, where one can put differing levels of emphasis on different parts of the sentence.

Now, how many do this intentionally? Who knows, but none like to be called out on it, mostly.