strawmen

Easily toppled positions

Strawmen is the plural of strawman, a misrepresented version of an argument set up to be easily knocked down.

In debate, attacking a strawman means refuting a position your opponent never actually held: He kept arguing against strawmen instead of addressing what I said.

A strawman can also be a front person or decoy—someone put forward to disguise another's involvement.

fallacy

misrepresentation

False or misleading statement

caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
oversimplificationStripping complexity unfairly
distortionTwisting from original state

sophistry · red herring · demagoguery · equivocation · spuriousness · canard · false dichotomy · slippery slope · ad hominem · weak argument

deception

sham

Fraudulent imitation

charadeAbsurd or obvious pretense
pretenseDeceptive outward show
fabricationDeliberately untrue statement

hoax · fakery · decoy · feint · ruse · front · dummy · façade · proxy · stand-in

agriculture

effigy

Sculpted human representation

decoyFalse target for misdirection
figureOutline or numeral
dummyLifelike substitute figure

harvest · cornfield · hay · burlap · stuffing · post

rhetoric

rebuttal

Formal response disputing claims

counterargumentPoint challenging another's position
refutationDisproving a statement
opponentOne who contends against

adversary · position · thesis · proposition · critique · takedown · demolition · dismantling · attack · target

Opposites

argumentative authenticity

strawmensteelmen

Metal industry workers

rhetorical strategy

strawmenSocratic method

Teaching by strategic questioning

intellectual engagement quality

strawmenintellectual honesty

Commitment to truth over ego

Phrases

strawman argumentMisrepresenting then refuting

Family

strawman, strawmanning

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