Logic: the straw man fallacy

Self-tutoring about logic and arguments: the tutor mentions the straw man fallacy.

The straw man fallacy means that, to oppose a point, you change its meaning to a related one and then argue against that, claiming that you are defeating the original point. An example might be if someone thinks governments shouldn’t run a deficit, but a government is running a 3% deficit. The supporter of the situation might suggest that the deficit isn’t good, but a reasonable compromise. The anti-deficit person, if they counter with “Well I guess you don’t care how much a deficit is – you just say ‘go for it…,'” is using a straw man argument. The supporter of the 3% deficit doesn’t believe that deficits are okay; they just think they are necessary sometimes.

Source:

owl.excelsior.edu

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.