Strawpeople

My favorite fallacy is strawperson.  Mostly because I really like the name.   But also because it is common.  A straw person is another's viewpoint that has been oversimplified and made so that it is easy to refute.  This rhetorical fallacy is common amongst writers who don't have a strong argument to begin with.  Their only resort is to attempt to weaken or challenge the opposite viewpoint.

Strawpeople can be hard to identify.  Really fallacious writers can be very manipulative and make the reader believe that the enemy’s point of view is ridiculous or insane.  That is why the first step in being a strawperson fallacy detective is to be be wary of any time you led to believe that the so-and-so must be completely crazy if he really believes this or that.  This is an easy indicator for anyone who is trying to knock down a strawperson.  Most legitimate aren’t that simple.  They are complex.  And complex arguments require well thought-out solutions.  So if a complex issue is being addressed and the opposite view is being made to seem ridiculous, be careful of strawpeople.

I have encountered strawpeople many a time in my brief existence on this planet. One of my most recent encounters was in a classroom setting.  Studying fallacies in Writing 150, we read an article by Matt Walsh.  In this article, Walsh used a plethora of strawpeople, making everyone of a different viewpoint from his seem like their brain waves weren’t functioning properly.  Even the title of his article, “Isn’t it mean and hateful to deport illegal immigrants?” draws attention to the opposite viewpoint: that deporting illegal immigrants is not bad.  But his argument is that it is not bad.  And he makes this clear very early on.  Then he spends the entire introductory phase of his article - about a very controversial matter, mind you - making it out to seem that the matter is very simple and that his solution is the only logical answer.  The rest of the article is Welsh attacking the opposite viewpoint.  To be 100%, I was not fooled by this fallacy.  Either I am fallacy-proof or it was magnitude of this fallacy that gave it away, but I think it was the latter.

So, in conclusion, if you ever come across an argument that doesn’t give a whole ton of evidence for it’s claim, but, on the other hand, plenty of evidence against the rebuttal, watch out.  You just might have encountered a strawperson.