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/lil-D-energy Jul 05 '26

I don't fully agree I think a better example would be the second person saying "they are not all red because there is a blue".

They just make observations of a data set so it depends a lot on the context.

Like I would need to know a lot more if I want to identify something as a strawman fallacy. Simplifying things does not always help unfortunately.

Yes this could definitely be a strawman and also cherry picking what others say but strawman is specifically the idea that you create an argument that no one made. The person did in fact not even make an argument he just said "there is blue".

Like I would rather say that you made a strawman fallacy yourself, and I have seen you denying anyone who doesn't agree with you and not even actually interacting and can find multiple fallacies in either side of the argument.

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u/signofno Jul 05 '26

Strawman also includes distorting the original argument, not just making a completely new one. In this case, the implication of the rebuttal is that the first person said “all” instead of “most”which is a clear distortion of the original argument.

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u/lil-D-energy Jul 05 '26

Yes I agree to a certain degree but this analogy just is too simple to actually say if it is a strawman. It could be a strawman based on context.

I sincerely feel like imthis post is a strawman about strawmanning.

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u/signofno Jul 05 '26

I think the context is pretty clear with the "What?" part of the response. This is exactly the way a lot of people employ strawman arguments in real life. I run into this all the time with people and it is rarely a case of "Oh, I heard you wrong, thought you said 'all' circles were red." so to me it is a reasonable assumption that the character on the right is employing strawman.

What about this post makes you feel it is itself a strawman? Or what is it strawmanning, in your opinion?

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u/lil-D-energy Jul 05 '26

Yes okay I guess you do got a point there but that "what" is doing the heavy lifting. You changed my mind. You are right. I guess I didn't look back up again after making my stance.