Straw Man

from the informal-fallacy dept

Definition of straw man

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Comments on “Straw Man”

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58 Comments
Dark Helmet (profile) says:

Re: Re:

“Yes, not every argument of yours is a straw man, but many of them in fact are. You’re as bad as those you purport to ridicule and expose.”

So you’re saying that her being a woman means she can’t write about straw MEN? How the hell can you say that? Writing about Straw Men is Nina’s, nay, every woman’s natural right.

Your campaign of mysoginism ends here, my friend. No longer can you rail against women just because they have boobs and such….

Prisoner 201 says:

Re: A way to improve your site

Dear A Reader,

I find your post so utterly stupid and devoid of value that I feel life draining from my body. I estimate that as much as three days of my life was lost.

To prevent this loss of life, could you please provide a filter that allows me to not have to see your comments, on this site or any other, forever?

Thank you very much.
–Prisoner 201

darryl says:

Re: Re: A way to improve your site

that I feel life draining from my body

Next time you getthat feeling, embrace it, run with it, and follow it to it’s conclusion.

It appears clear your life is not that valuable anyway.

But there is a great deal to be critical of when it comes to the quality of how material is presented on TD.

Mike has yet to work out the “brief summary” of an artical that if you want to read you click on, no instead you come here are have to wait for 30 odd (sometimes very odd) articles IN FULL have to load..

If you want to click back to HOME, you have to freaking LOAD them all again.

For someone who claims to know everything about the internet and ‘connecting with fans’ you do you piss poor job at your own site and customer satisifaction….. Mike…

darryl says:

Re: Re: Re:2 A way to improve your site

it is a problem because the web master of this web site thinks it is acceptable to offer the bare minimum of quality of service.

Or it is something that is technically beyond him, or there is a financial incentive for him doing it this old and inefficient way.

I believe Mike is of the belief that quantity is far more important than quality. We get alot of the first, but very little of the later.

Mr. Smarta** says:

A little gender neutrality here

What’s with the gender identification. It should be “Straw person”. Stating man or woman, or his or her, or whatever leans toward sexism. Anything ‘man’ or ‘woman’ needs to be changed to ‘person’ in order to avoid a sexist situation.

Some proposals:
“That man over there…” changes to “That person over there…”
Man-hole cover becomes person-hole cover
A “Ladies’ man” becomes a “person’s person”.
Manager becomes Personager
Mandate becomes Personadate
History becomes persontory
Herman becomes Personperson
Mandatory becomes persondatory

If we’re going to remove sexism from the english language, we need to get serious about it.

… What was the topic again?

Mr. Smarta** says:

Re: Re: A little gender neutrality here

Is that where that came from? Stuff like that was floating around my college for years. Someone with too much time on their hands even posted a three-hundred line or so list of all th words changed. The ones above are the only ones I could remember.

Good to know, thanks. I’ll never use that again anywhere. Don’t want to get sued for copyright infringement or anything.

Dark Helmet (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: A little gender neutrality here

“Good to know, thanks. I’ll never use that again anywhere. Don’t want to get sued for copyright infringement or anything.”

I’m pretty sure you’re safe from George suing you 🙂

From IMDB of his standup:

George Carlin: When it comes to changing the language, I think they make some good points. Because we do think in language. And so the quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language. So maybe some of this patriarchal shit ought to go away. I think “spokesman” ought to be “spokesperson.” I think “chairman” ought to be “chairperson.” I think “mankind” ought to be “humankind.” But they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a “personhole cover.” I think that’s taking it a little bit too far!
[laughter]
George Carlin: What would you call a ladies’ man, a “person’s person”? That would make a he-man an “it-person.” Little kids would be afraid of the “boogie-person.” They’d look up in the sky and see the “person in the moon.” Guys would say “come back here and fight like a person,” and we’d all sing “For It’s a Jolly Good Person,” that’s the kind of thing you would hear on “Late Night with David Letterperson”! You know what I mean?

darryl says:

Re: Re: Re:3 A little gender neutrality here

it would be non-gender specific, non-race specific mail delivery official.

but it is not PC to say that a ‘manager’ cannot be either gender.

Nina do you consider yourself an ‘artist’ or an “artistess”?

There is nothing incorrect in PC if you call your mail man a mail man if he happens to be a man !!!

Or a straw man a man if the effigy of the person is of a man.

Or a police man a police man if he is a man.

A “fireman” is a title, not a gender, just like “manager” is a title and not a gender, you can be a ‘fireman’ and be female.

that is why ‘best man’ is still a man and is correct and PC because that is his title.

and a “male mailman” would be a ‘person mail person” according to this odd line of thought you have 🙂

Unles you think the stuff you get in your mail box has a gender !!!!..

Mail and Male,,, if your going to try to be funny, at least get it right !!!

MrWilson says:

Re: Re: A little gender neutrality here

If we’re getting that technical, “history” is of Latin origin and “his” is of German origin. The “his…” in “history” isn’t related. Same with mandate, mandatory, and manager.

If you’re dividing Herman into “her” and “man,” it’d be “person’s person” since “her” is possessive.

Also, “man” originally meant “human” or “person” and only later was used more specifically for the masculine gender.

Woman comes from the term “wifman” which meant “female human.”

People who want to change language usage really need to understand the underlying etymology before they go off on how some terms are inherently sexist.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Re:

I understand funny is subjective, and I was expressing my opinion. Am I not allowed to have one?

I do note that, even in this thread, that there are others who just don’t find the cartoon funny at all. While I wouldn’t attempt to broadbrush anything (that is Mike’s job), I would suspect that put in the public eye and exposed to 1000 random people who are not techdirt readers, the vast majority of them wouldn’t find much humor in the toon.

It is perhaps the reason why they aren’t in wider circulation or referenced outside of this very small circle of people.

Taste is subjective. Accept that I also have the right to taste and the right to express my opinion.

My opinions are right by default for me, but not for you. That is why they have my name attached to them, and not yours.

Prisoner 201 says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

Maybe it’s because I am not a native english speaker, but I would expect “I think it’s not even funny” or “I think it’s the low end” (or similar) if you were expressing an opinion.

You come across (again perhaps its a language barrier thing) as trying to “educate” and smack-down rather than just having an honest opinion.

Your “1000 people” example highlights this – you defend your opinion by some made up statistics – when (as you say) an opionion on something as subjective as humor doesn’t need defending.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

how many of those 1000 people could even explain what a ‘strawman argument’ is? The comic is humorous to those that understand the concept and the constant ‘strawman arguments’ posted by shills on forums all over the internet every day.

Stop 1000 people on the street and ask them to explain the fallacy of a straw-man argument. The number that can correctly explain the concept are probably the same ones that would think the comic humorous.

I don’t care what the joke/humor is, if you have to explain the concepts and underlying terms used to someone… they are not going to find it funny.

There are only 10 type of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t…. Not really funny at all if you don’t understand binary now, is it? Just sounds like someone who doesn’t know how to support all his facts… claiming there are 10 types of people but only explaining two of the types, I mean what is that guy thinking? That’s totally not funny at all…. Oh, 10 = 2 in binary… I get it now….

John Doe says:

Dumbass - You just Made a Straw Man Argument in your simple comic

Original Argument: Mike’s 9/11 Argument is a straw man argument.

Your STRAW MAN ARGUMENT: Not All of Mike’s arguments are straw man arguments. (ALL dead clocks, even Mike, are right twice a day, and many of Mike’s arguments have other problems.)

A GOOD ARGUMENT: Mike’s 9/11 argument is NOT a straw man argument because he correctly represents the other person’s position.

Nice drawing Nina, but if you believe the BS on this blog, stay in school or stick to drawing.

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