Learn to Argue like our President!!
The Strawman Fallacy of Argument
The act of mischaracterizing an opponent’s argument as weaker than it is, and defeating the weaker, in order to discredit the opposition. A fallacy of argumentation.
UPDATE
I’ve had a lot of interest on this cartoon so I thought I would elaborate a little on the strawman fallacy of argumentation.
In a debate, one person commits this error when they act as if they’re describing the argument of their opponent, but in actuality, are describing a weaker or completely falsified form of it.
Example: In my cartoon, Obama describes the argument of his opponents, when that is NOT what Republicans say about healthcare.
Then that same person refutes this false argument, and claims that he has the superior opinion. This is often called “knocking down strawmen”.
To the audience which agrees with the arguer will most likely cheer, the opponents will be annoyed, and anyone in the middle who doesn’t understand logic will be slightly swayed towards the error.