Have you seen this man lately?
Of course you have --- "straw man" arguments have completely taken over Daily Kos! If you're not familiar with the term, a straw man is "an argument or opponent set up so as to be easily refuted or defeated." In other words, it's when instead of honestly debating something, one party misrepresents the opponent's argument and defeats that instead of engaging the true representation of the opponent's argument.
From Wikipedia:
A straw man argument can be set up in any of the following ways, by:
1. Presenting a misrepresentation of the opponent's position and then refuting it, thus giving the appearance that the opponent's actual position has been refuted.[1]
2. Quoting an opponent's words out of context -- i.e., choosing quotations that are not representative of the opponent's actual intentions (see contextomy and quote mining).[2]
3. Presenting someone who defends a position poorly as the defender and then refuting that person's arguments, thus giving the appearance that every upholder of that position, and thus the position itself, has been defeated.[1]
4. Inventing a fictitious persona with actions or beliefs that are criticized, such that the person represents a group of whom the speaker is critical.
5. Oversimplifying an opponent's argument, then attacking the simplified version.
An example:
Bill and Jill are arguing about cleaning out their closets:
Jill: "We should clean out the closets. They are getting a bit messy."
Bill: "Why, we just went through those closets last year. Do we have to clean them out everyday?"
Jill: "I never said anything about cleaning them out every day. You just want too keep all your junk forever, which is just ridiculous."
In this case, each person commits the fallacy. Bill commits it when he insinuates that Jill is arguing that they clean the closets every day. Jill commits it when she insinuates Bill wants to keep the junk forever. Later that day, they filed for divorce.
Another example of a straw man is at the top of this diary, where I said straw man arguments have completely taken over Daily Kos. This is an exaggeration, but it sure does make my diary seem super fucking important, doesn't it? An even better version would have been like, "Daily Kos is so full of candidate diaries invoking straw man arguments, it's not worth reading anymore." That would have misrepresented reality AND attacked the fake reality. ...
In conclusion, straw men suck ass. If you see one, call your local straw man exterminator, or if none exists in your area, FLAME THE FUCK OUT OF THEM BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS ANNOYING.