Straw Man

Straw man. This is the fallacy of refuting a caricatured or extreme version of somebody's argument, rather than the actual argument they've made. Often this fallacy involves putting words into somebody's mouth by saying they've made arguments they haven't actually made, in which case the straw man argument is a veiled version of argumentum ad logicam. One example of a straw man argument would be to say, "Mr. Jones thinks that capitalism is good because everybody earns whatever wealth they have, but this is clearly false because many people just inherit their fortunes," when in fact Mr. Jones had not made the "earnings" argument and had instead argued, say, that capitalism gives most people an incentive to work and save. The fact that some arguments made for a policy are wrong does not imply that the policy itself is wrong.

http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/fallacies.html#Straw%20man">Logical Fallacies and the Art of Debate

Please check out this web site.

How'd I do?

I disagree with you. I have never heard Barack Obama use a straw man argument.

"You repeatedly misstate the underlying premise."

"Your cock!"

But Zombie haters such as yourself always always rely on false opinions when you can't back up your OP with facts. Plus your candidate didn't win so obviously your thoughts are meaningless.

(DU's second favorite: "Poisoning the well" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well)

Permanently.

we'd be spared of reading or ignoring!

:shrug:

Freeper!

Are you a Pee Wee fan, too? Cool!

I've just gone all cockney on you, matey....London Guildhall.

Interesting subject to say the least.

"Obama compared gay marriage and incest".

Unless you live in one of those places in which having relations with your cousin is not considered incest.

edit for spelling

These are very good examples you're coming up with.

My understanding was the DOJ report compared the same sex marriage case to cases which involved people marrying their cousins. Am I wrong?

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

No, your not.

Yes, I am.

Did the DOJ compare gay marriage cases to cousin marrying cases?

I hate it when people get outraged at a comparison.

As it is, I once did research on cousin marriages and ran across several gay marriage references as well. There are still several states that allow first cousins to marry and there are actually sites out there for cousins who are married to fight the concept it is incest and to support each other. .

So the similarity has to do with making marriages acceptable that some portion of the population believes are not.

So really, it is way OTT, ready-to-be-offended people who cannot get that intellectual concept. It is not an intent to say it is necessarily abnormal. But the two different types of marriages, supporting them, can both use similar argument.

Just google "cousin marriage" and it will soon become apparent.

When you use the word "outrage", what does it mean to you? (I should ask this in an OP sometime)

----------------

The comparison was made, and therefore, claiming the comparison was made is not a straw man.

----------------

I am not exactly sure what you are referring to in your subject line. "I don't necessarily think ????? is evil". The comparison, cousin marriage, something else?

You think people don't know what it is?

or is this just some sort of vanity post.

Or both.

Sheesh.

I think most of us do, but we sometimes need reminders.

"or is this just some sort of vanity post"

I am not sure what a vanity post is, so I don't know the answer to this question.

That means he's against horses, since they eat hay.

He hates horses.

Little girls like ponies. Ponies are small horses.

ZombieHorde hates little girls.

This was so funny to me when I read it that I decided I'd make it my sig for a while:

"I'm 100% sure of my views and totally convinced that I'm right. Can you say the same? I doubt it."

I wonder, does it match any of the recognized fallacies in the list? Does it have a fancy Latin name?

"Argumentum ad hominem (argument directed at the person)" if you were using the fact the other person was not 100% sure as a reason to belittle their argument.

indirect appeal to authority?

Sorry, I can't wrap my head around that right now. Its quite embarrassing.



I went back and looked at the list, and I don't see an appeal to emotion other than pity. So, what about Argumentum ad numerum for a population sample of one?

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.