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What is strawmanning?

I've heard this term get tossed around a lot in argument, and I have yet to learn what it means.It's apparently some form of logical fallacy, but that's all I can interpret, so I'd like to know what it fully is, and is it possible to give an example of strawmanning so I can better understand it?

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bijouxbroussard

Person 1 asserts proposition X.
Person 2 argues against superficially similar proposition Y, falsely, as if an argument against Y were an argument against X.
For example, I once mentioned that I thought the drinking age should be the same as the current military age (18).
Someone replied, "You'd rather have them killed in car accidents than in battle ?"

Obviously, that's not what I said, but the person is arguing as if that would be the logical outcome if what I stated came to pass.

spark19

Building a straw man, then defeating him...bring up a point of argument your opponent did not make...like when liberals talk about opposing government programs as being in favor of anarchy

bijouxbroussard

Or when conservatives equate marriage equality, between two consenting adults, as comparable to someone being able to marry his dog or his car.

Amanwhowanders

Go watch Sargon of Akkad, he uses that word plenty, has a video about it too, haha but I don't know, maybe it's on urban dictionary

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