An End to Straw Men on DU

[jgraz]

straw man
–noun
1. a mass of straw formed to resemble a man, as for a doll or scarecrow.
2. a person whose importance or function is only nominal, as to cover another's activities; front.
3. a fabricated or conveniently weak or innocuous person, object, matter, etc., used as a seeming adversary or argument: The issue she railed about was no more than a straw man.

[Az]

1. Yeah... that should do it

[greyl]

8. Heheh.

Yep, it sure is a great wish and it's good to remind people, but being one of the most popular types of bad arguments on the internet, I doubt those who overuse it will give up the crutch that easily.

[Snotcicles]

2. You have my vote. nt

[Ghost in the Machine]

3. Why do you hate scarecrows?

The USLF* is watching you...



*United Scarecrow Liberation Front

[cloudbase]

6. The National Scarecrow League

considers the USLF to be a bunch of stuffed shirts. So there!

[Ghost in the Machine]

23. Scarecrows stuff their codpieces too

:thumbsup:

[Richard Steele]

28. It's a fact:

[Evoman]

4. It's called Freedom of Speech, asshole.

Why are you trying to piss on the constitution?

[Maribelle]

11. Oh look at that shiny thing over there - the constitution.

Strawman? lol

[jgraz]

12. lol

:thumbsup:

[Richard Steele]

5. Are you saying I can't yell "bigotry" whenever I don't like the Board Moderation?

[CT_Progressive]

14. Bigotry is a straw man?

[jgraz]

22. What a bigoted response

Also, please stop kicking puppies. :P

[Richard Steele]

30. It is when it's a thinly-veiled whine about the way DU is moderated.

nm

[AuntPatsy]

7. Now I can understand why they use that word so often, it sure does

appear alot lately, strawman issues and such, I think giving so much attention to the likes of coulter etc is a strawman attempt to direct one's outrage away from whats more important...

Did I get it right?

[greyl]

13. That's more of a Red Herring, really. A distraction.

A straw argument can be concisely described as "attacking an exaggerated or caricatured version of your opponent's position".

Some decent info on other fallacious arguments here: www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#straw
Wikipedia also has a great page on logical fallacies: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

[AuntPatsy]

20. Interesting, got it though, learn something new everyday....I see the difference.

[Jack Bone]

25. yeah..what he said

[AtomicKitten]

9. My condolences.

[jgraz]

17. If I only had a ... how did that go again?

[AtomicKitten]

35. Doh!

[bananas]

18. We need an end to Tin Men

people without a brain.

[AtomicKitten]

33. We really need an end to Oil Men.

[depakid]

24. If I only had a brain....

Might as well wait for the rapture....

Until then, the Strawman and his good buddy "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw/The_Irishman">the True Irishman," will be alive and well.

[Ghost in the Machine]

29. You BIGOT! Showing a scarecrow with a noose around his neck!

:rofl:

:hi:

[bryant69]

10. You're right - now that i know what a straw man is I'm sure I will never use one again

and no one else will either.

Thank you jgraz.

Bryant

[jgraz]

16. Actually, I think you should put up a poll about it

:P

[daninthemoon]

15. Where's the logic? This post is just a weak, vague, hyperbolic

red herring.:P ;)

[madinmaryland]

19. Some people say that is not true...

:hide:

[Junkdrawer]

21. Yet another Conspiracy Theory Post...

So, all posts on DU that you don't like are "straw man" posts. Do you think we all meet so that we can beat up on you? Get over yourself!

:P

[flvegan]

26. Your post is a strawman.

Well, it is.

[greyl]

31. Well, no it isn't.

Why do you think it is?

[flvegan]

32. Because it defines strawman

It's the very definition of strawman.

[greyl]

37. Heheh. :)

However, the word "red" isn't the color red.
But you never said it was. ;)

[endarkenment]

27. Self referential irony.

You have posted a conveniently weak argument. Your "an end to straw men on DU" is a strawman argument. In a perfect world your post would annihilate itself.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

34. Nice post, Hitler.

[Skidmore]

36. Are we going to have a bonfire?

I'm going to get the marshmallows.