If someone only responds to the weakest points of an argument but doesn’t respond to the argument as a whole, is that still a strawman or does it have a different name?
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Original Question
I’m asking because I know a strawman is meant to misrepresent the argument but here the argument isn’t really misrepresented, it’s just avoided all together.
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Answers
2It's dishonest, but not a strawman because the weakest points were indeed still part of the original argument, they're just low-hanging fruit. The deceit comes not in misrepresentation of the argument, but in using its weakest links to characterise the entire thing.
E.g. I make 3 points against the concept of state-sanctioned hate speech laws. 2 are reasonable and 1 is weak.
Distorting the argument to make it look foolish is a strawman fallacy
Missing the point is an ignoratio elenchi
Only attacking the weakest point is argument by selective reading
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I'm interested in replies to your question as well since I've little training in this arena but it seems to me not to be a strawman at all but an avoidance of the full argument.
Like you, I am interested in discovering if that sort of response has a particular name.
I'm new here, as of yesterday, and this is my first post. Hopefully, I've not done it poorly.