• CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 months ago

    I mean, any argument with an imaginary opponent is kinda a strawman if you think about it. I’m not doubting existence of such folks tho, there are lots of morons among people.

    • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      No, it is not automatically a strawman. It’s only such if it was intentionally contrived to support a particular position. An imaginary person used in a socratic dialog is clearly not automatically a strawman, for example. That would be tantamount to saying Socrates himself (potentially an imaginary person used by Plato for argumentative purposes) is nothing but a strawman.

      Not only was the meme not a strawman, it was an incredibly common conversation that happens in real life dozens of times every day.