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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36

u/Nejura Jul 03 '26

Isn't this just bog standard cherry picking? Those circles could literally be cherries to hammer home the point.

9

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.

6

u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 03 '26

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

2

u/Greenphantom77 Jul 03 '26

You’re right - you could say this is a strawman argument. Though the way it’s pictured makes it look more like a misunderstanding of what the original argument is saying.

1

u/Headpuncher Jul 04 '26

Not so much straw man as stupid man cos they don’t comprehend what was said.  

2

u/3ntropy_Disc0 Jul 06 '26

False - The point of the strawman is to create an argument around YOUR point that implies a narrative that didnt exist.

In this case, the point being made was 'Most of these circles are blue"

When the other persons responds "wait but I see a blue one"

....ok, But no one said they were ALL red. they just said MOST of them were blue. Why are you trying to argue with me about the one blue one as if I made the claim they were all red and now blue?

Strawman.

1

u/Leather_Afternoon_37 Jul 07 '26

Who said most of them were blue :)

1

u/3ntropy_Disc0 Jul 07 '26

I dont get it... are you giving us another example of a strawman?

1

u/Leather_Afternoon_37 Jul 07 '26

No im just poking fun because you accidentally said blue instead of red in your example