Strawman Fallacy

Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument.

Examples:

  • _Ted: Biological evolution is both a theory and a fact.

Edwin: That is ridiculous! How can you possibly be absolutely certain that we evolved from pond scum!

Ted: Actually, that is a gross misrepresentation of my assertion. I never claimed we..._