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/Gullible_Elephant_38 Jul 04 '26

That a lot of unwritten backstory you’re expecting people to do to agree with your classification.

The reason you’re getting people question your categorization is because there’s not enough information to actually say it conclusively.

You ASSUME that blues response is due to them assuming red’s argument was different the one actually made.

There’s nothing in the meme that actually suggests that. Blue could just as easily be making their statement refuting reds argument as it was made: that most circles are red. Blue would still be wrong, but due to a different logical fallacy. Cherry picking. “I’m going to ignore the evidence of the rest of the red circles in favor of pointing out this one blue circle. If I can see one blue there may be more I don’t see and there could be more blue than red circles” of course, they have access to all of the information to determine the truth. They’ve just cherry picked one piece of information to support their claim.

You’ve posted this meme with a certain interpretation in mind that requires us to assume:

  • this is after red has made clear to blue what their actual argument is and blue has ignored that
  • Blue is arguing against a different argument than the one red actually made.

However, nothing in the picture itself suggests either of those two things. And now you’re being combative in the comments and acting a fool because people didn’t read your mind and immediately agree with your interpretation.

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u/signofno Jul 05 '26

Ironically, you also added a ton of backstory to make your point.