About Straw Man:

The Straw Man is a way to paint your opposition as stupid or mistaken by asserting that they believe something that is false, extreme, or fallacious (that is, the “straw man.”) When that straw-man belief or weak argument is refuted, victory is claimed without having to engage with the opposition’s stronger, actual position. Sometimes the issuer might not even need to explicitly refute the attributed argument if it is made sufficiently absurd.

Straw Man in fact is a broad category of fallacies, and it is one of the most frequently-employed tactics on social media.  It is especially effective for a variety of reasons.  The distorted characterization may be simpler and easier for the audience to understand.  Allied partisan viewers eagerly welcome confirmation of the opposition’s unreasonableness.  And opposition viewers may lack the time and energy to correct the false characterization.  (“Eh, what’ll it get me…”)

The straw man characterization attributed to the opposition may either incorporate an implausible premise or may itself embed a logical fallacy. For example, the issuer may claim that the opposition believes a wild extrapolation of a simple, uncontroversial principle. Or that the opposition is guilty of a Slippery Slope fallacy.

Straw Man arguments on social media reflexively attract adulation from the in-group. But the relentless stream of Straw Man arguments over time causes partisans to have a very distorted view of the opposition, which, in turn, increases political polarization.

A diplomatic response to a Straw Man argument may be to ask whether the issuer has evidence that the members of the opposition actually believe the Straw Man version.