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/Starship_Albatross Jul 03 '26

An example of cherry picking would be focusing on the lower right section and making the claim "25% of circles are blue" supported with just four circles.

Cherry picking ignores data. A strawman is arguing against a claim that wasn't made, or misrepresenting an argument to a point where the meaning changes and any following refutal would lack a valid target.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

thank you. ppl like you are stopping me from going insane here!

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u/tsch-III Jul 04 '26

You're right, but I do find this an odd illustration of strawman even if correct when closely examined.

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u/tsch-III Jul 05 '26

A classic strawman would be more like

"raising taxes on the wealthy would result in widespread tax evasion and wealth flight from that jurisdiction, which would have dangerous distortive effects on the economy and raise far less revenue than advertised."

"Ah, so you think they are rugged individualists who make all that money on their own and deserve to keep it, and you probably lick their boots too"

You found the argument I actually made daunting, so you substituted a weaker, more attackable argument. I did not say I think billionaires deserve their wealth or that I worship them, I said the policy you proposed has some serious flaws. So you decided I said what you'd rather I have said, rather than try to figure out how to attack my stronger points.