straw person fallacy

straw person fallacy

  • Arguers commit the fallacy of the straw person when they attribute to a proponent a view the proponent does not hold; they prefer to refute the view the proponent does hold by attacking a misrepresented position.

For instance, Donald Trump uses the straw person fallacy when he claims that Joe Biden will get rid of religion when Biden is a religious man.

Source: Reason in the Balance: an inquiry approach to critical thinking. 

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