CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Straw Man Fallacy [HD]

In this Wireless Philosophy video, Joseph Wu (University of Cambridge) introduces you to the straw man fallacy. This fallacy is committed whenever someone misrepresents an opponent's claim in arguing against it.

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Help us caption & translate this video!

[TheWindows]

These critical thinking videos should be mandatory for every human being on Earth.

[RynoZ]

The Straw Man Fallacy is the general discussion pattern for Youtube debates.

[thinklikeido]

Also known as "changing the subject".

[andrewf]

Debating is easy, all you have to do is be completely objective. Have a response literally word for word. The problem is people are a) unintelligent or b) blinded by ideological bias

[davida]

Just here to improve myself in Among Us

[icappel]

I wish they also showed an example that is more difficult to spot

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Ah yes, I remember one time I saw someone talking about how everyone who cheats is just looking to "sleep around and get laid". So I replied saying that there are actually several motives that can lead a person to infidelity, and that it isn't necessarily about wanting to sleep around. Literally everyone who replied to me lashed-out about how there is no justification that makes cheating acceptable. After trying to explain several times that I wasn't justifying infidelity, simply pointing-out that it's more complicated than the original poster was asserting, I eventually just had to shake my head and bow-out of the discussion because of the mob rule in that thread. Sometimes people in a discussion just don't want to have a discussion.

[sumitraghani]

My whole life has been an experience of the Strawman fallacy. Getting a t-shirt saying - "But that's not what I said!" was the only logical way out.

[WtfReal]

It’s hard to debate someone that is smart, it’s impossible to debate someone that is stupid

[tigergirl]

My absolute *favorite* thing that I just *love* is when a roommate uses a strawman to manipulate you so that you stop telling her what she doesn't want to hear, after she literally asked you for an honest answer Basically, I told her I'm worried she stretches the truth and speaks from her emotions rather than looking at things objectively, and then I provided specific examples of when this has happened. She then accused me of calling her a liar as she walked away from the conversation.

[ZoggFromBetelgeuse]

Your critique of the straw man fallacy is invalid :
Dolls made of dry stalks of cereal plants are widely used as scarecrows, combat training targets, swordsmiths' test targets, effigies to be burned, and as rodeo dummies to distract bulls. In consequence, criminalizing the production, trade and use of straw men would make no sense. Also, the creation of an international task force to hunt down and destroy straw men all over the world would not only be difficult to organize but also cost a lot of money. Even worse, drone strikes on scarcrows in states who didn't sign your internantional anti-straw-men-treaty could lead to diplomatic tensions, if not war. Is this really what you want?

[Caius]

Hahahahaha 'I love cards, I get tremendous cards..'

Brilliant.

[Starcrash]

I have accused people of using the "T-Man Fallacy", which is a sort of reverse-straw-man. It's when you attack an opponent's argument, but then they change the original claim in order to accuse you of a straw-man. My favorite example (because I see it so often) is when I demonstrate that Christianity is like other world religions, only to be told that Christianity is a "relationship" or a "philosophy"rather than a religion. Since neither of these other positions is mutually-exclusive with it being a religion, they're simply trying to change the way it's perceived so they can make it look like my attacks hit a straw target despite my attempts to hit the real one. While not universally perceived as a logical fallacy, you can probably get why it is one, by the same logic of the straw-man.

[julesprince]

I really like the black background this time.

[victorialin]

this reminds me of the jordan peterson debate with cathy newman where cathy kept misrepresenting peterson's positions

[LEFTBASS]

Another interesting fallacy is the Motte-Bailey fallacy, which is basically a reverse strawman. It’s where a person takes their difficult to defend view and puts an easier statement in its place.

For example, “We should outlaw cigarettes” is a lot harder to defend than “Smoking is bad for you”.

[thewatchedlists]

Thank you, Joseph Wu. I thought I understood the Strawman Fallacy before I watched this video but recognise I only partially did. Your explanation is very straight forward and easy to understand, for me.

[gentrydean]

"I love cards. I get tremendous cards. Best cards in the world, let me tell you." Hahaha

[josephroxursox]

The politics part is actually Red Herring, not Strawman. Similar, but different.

[OVXX]

now i can win arguments with fallacy since no sane human being cares or has been taught it at school. good day.