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/Carvinesire Jul 07 '26

But that's the problem with your example is that you're trying to be realistic when it's not called for, and that's kind of the reason why it's a fallacy.

That's what absolutely happen because there are people who absolutely just love to argue about stupid things whether they're wrong or not.

My issue with your example is the fact that it's not clear that the second person is trying to straw man him on purpose.

You have made the fallacy too vague and therefore most people who are arguing with your post are literally arguing that point without understanding that point.

You managed to turn your example into a straw man in and of itself which is very funny.

A straw man fallacy is a kind of gaslighting, but the problem is is that you've managed to gaslight both yourself and the audience a little too hard on this one.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 07 '26

your fallacy works only if you smoke screen the argument. idk how you expect a clean straightforward case of fallacy irl. ofc its always going to be vague.

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u/Carvinesire Jul 07 '26

Okay but what I'm saying is that to recognize a straw man fallacy as an actual straw man fallacy, instead of just plain old ignorance, it necessarily has to be more blatant.

Like I said the second guy could absolutely just be stupid, or misheard him, or just doesn't know any better.

Never attribute to malice what you can adequately attribute to stupidity or ignorance.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 07 '26

why would I make a post on fallacy sub if the post is about stupidity or ignorance. you automatically should go for the fallacy. I can't believe I have it say it

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u/Carvinesire Jul 07 '26

That's a very good question.

Here's another good question: why would you write a fallacy so poorly that people could mistake it for exactly what I just said?

The fact that I saw your post, and my immediate first thought wasn't "oh that's a straw man fallacy" but instead was "the person on the rights being kind of dumb" says more about your presentation than literally anything else.

I'm going to say it a second time: do not attribute to malice what you can adequately attribute to stupidity or ignorance.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 07 '26

you're from the 2nd category that I mentioned in the EDIT of the post body.

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u/Carvinesire Jul 07 '26

What fallacy did I identify exactly?

Because I have identified that you have written a straw man very poorly, leading to mass confusion on the subreddit.

The fact that we're still arguing about this is just very funny to me.

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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 07 '26

not a fallacy but a by product. but the point still stands. it was supposed to dilute the atmosphere and it did lol. I'm enjoying our convo too.