Tue, June 1, 2004
I probably would vote for a straw man over Kerry—12:53 PM
Making Hay Out of Straw Men [WP]
I've always been a fan of highlighting and discrediting straw man arguments, because to me it feels a lot like cheating. Particularly in the current political climate, where people – including the press – are generally uninterested in doing the research to see if the portrait of the opponent's position is a truthful representation.
I only got halfway into Darwin's Black Box, by Michael Behe, which was basically just one giant straw man argument against evolution. (I keep meaning to give it another try – I'm confident I can finish the thing, infuriating as it is, if I just grit my teeth and power through.)
(By the way, the Bush quote at the end of the WP column is out of context. Don't consider my link to the column as an endorsement of that kind of thing. Stupid liberal media.)
