Glossary
Strawman
Misrepresenting an opponent's argument as a weaker version, then refuting the weaker version instead.
A strawman replaces "my opponent thinks X for nuanced reasons Y" with "my opponent thinks idiotic version of X." The weak version is then easy to demolish, but the demolition addresses nothing the opponent actually believes. The cure is steel-manning — articulating the strongest version of the opposing argument before disagreeing with it. Most online discourse is strawmen because strawmen are emotionally satisfying and cheap to produce. See also: whataboutism, steel-manning.
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