1. The Straw Man Because real people aren’t cool enough. 1

2. What is it? Annoying…that’s what. 2

3. The fallacy The straw man fallacy is when you misrepresent someone else's position so that it can be attacked more easily, knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished. It's a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made. 3

4. Examples? Of course! Thanks to the holy book of critical thinking. 4

5. The Nagging Wife. Wife: “Mark, it’s time you got busy and cleaned out the garage.” Mark: “What? Again? Do I have to clean out that garage every blasted day?” 5

6. Politicians being Politicians A Democratic Congresswoman will say she opposes cutting taxes A Republican will accuse her of wanting to raise taxes. 6

7. Business Acusations In 2005, the political group USA NEXT ran an ad attacking the AARP, a nationwide organization of retired persons. The ad made it appear that the AARP stood for gay marriage when in fact the organization had never taken a stand on the subject. Charlie Jarvis, chairman of USA Next, defended the ad by saying that an AARP affiliate in Ohio had come out against a samesex marriage ban in that state. To claim that this is the same as saying the AARP endorses gay marriage is a good example of a straw man fallacy 7