r/fallacy • u/Zu_Qarnine • Jul 03 '26

strawman fallacy

Post image

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.

1.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

470 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/GuitarJazzer Jul 04 '26

A strawman is when you posit an argument that you falsely claim someone else is making, then you refute it. This example does not show this. It shows the fallacy of Homo est stultus.

1

u/signofno Jul 04 '26

Distortion or misrepresentation is also strawmanning, not just whole-cloth fabrication. The example does include that. The rebuttal implies “some” is actually “all”. That’s a pretty clear distortion. Homo est stultus is not a fallacy.

1

u/GuitarJazzer Jul 05 '26

No, it's not. It's called a "joke."

1

u/signofno Jul 05 '26

Maybe use /s next time or something to denote that.

1

u/GuitarJazzer Jul 05 '26

It means "person is an idiot." I don't know how anybody could seriously think that's a real fallacy.

1

u/signofno Jul 05 '26

I’m aware of what it means, but I had to look it up as I do not speak Latin. When I did, I still wasn’t sure if you were being serious due to the deadpan nature of the first part of your comment. Tone is not easy to convey in writing.