• BossDj@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    A strawman argument is still a strawman even if there was no malicious intent and it was made through ignorance of making a proper argument.

    The phrasing isn’t just poor, though, it has a connotation/implication that can only be learned through social context. There’s absolutely aggressive intention with the phrasing. At the very least a “gotcha” attempt. Maybe they were raised in that environment and thus are uneducated and generally antagonistic, but then Hanlon’s Razor would extend to any acts of hate.

    I always like to ask “are you being judgemental or curious?” (Thanks, Ted Lasso)

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s not a strawman argument, though. The question does not follow the pattern:

      The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument:

      • Person 1 asserts proposition X.
      • Person 2 argues against a superficially similar proposition Y, falsely, as if an argument against Y were an argument against X.

      Now I will quote the post to show that it does not follow the pattern:

      So if one of the models was a man in a suit with a lampshade on their head you would have no problem and this would be perfectly normal?

      There’s no statement that the argument being made is that “it would be fine if the actors were male instead of female”. The poster is asking a question, to paraphrase: “is this what you’re saying?”. This is a common way to phrase this question (even if it is not a good way to phrase it) when asking it honestly, so it would be unfair to assume the worst interpretation.