The Straw Man Argument

18th MAY 2024

Strap in for some nerdery…

A straw man argument is when someone “distorts what someone has said into an extreme version of itself, then argues against that instead” or when “the arguer attempts to make their opponent look ridiculous and thus making their own postion seem like the rational option”.

There are plenty of Youtube Videos on the subject, here’s a random one, it will even explain why a man made of straw is in the name. Of course, some people don’t realise they are using straw man arguments, and it is very common, especially now that we live in a world of fast fingered social media.

So when a quite simple Poll happened on a local Facebook page, one Town Councillor seemed to object, resorting to a classic example of a straw man argument.

Here’s that poll…

Is it outrageous that this display of public opinion should be allowed to just sit out there like this?

The councillor quoted sections of The Local Government Act of 1972, reciting specific paragraphs about how the voting and choosing works, plastering them all over pretty much everyone’s comments in a flurry of copy and pastes.

Why?

Was it to educate and inform?

Was it to teach people a lesson?

Was it out of anger? You know, the kind of thing when Teddy is out of the pram so Teddy can't pacify the situation? "Noooooo!" pined Teddy as he bounced off the floor as if in a trailer for a Pixar film - In cinemas near you, this summer?

Was it just an obsession with the technicalities of voting systems?

Who knows? However, what was clear is the poll hadn't mentioned or suggested any voting mechanisms at all, it just looked like the quick informal way to gauge interest that it was - and gauge interest it did!

At time of writing poll results stood at 230 votes for “Yes” and 10 votes for “No”.

‍The spooky mystery of the double vote. C’mon Scoob!

It seems the councillor was so passionate that they should choose the Mayor and NOT the public, that they used two separate Facebook accounts that they have to vote twice for “No”.
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Hold on, 2nd straw man argument incoming.
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When members of the public pointed it out to the councillor how they’d voted twice, the councillor claimed it was a mistake (really? okay) and said it was evidence that online polls like this for deciding important things like mayor are unreliable.

Oh dear, there wasn’t ever any suggestion of it being a way to decide mayor. How do straw man arguments work again? Twist a scenario, make it look like the other person has suggested it, attack it.

Some of you might be left wondering if it was just a technical blunder on the councillor's part, and thinking "could they have been a poppet and popped back to remove one of the unfair votes that they’d popped on the poll?". No. (Well, not at time of writing anyway).
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But it didn’t stop there.

The councillor then turned their attention to undermining an Anonymous Poster. It seemed that the anonymity was something that had got under their skin. Seeming to be getting nowhere, and with their double voting exposed it looked like it was time to target the person instead of the content.

Ross Notice Board, the local Facebook Group that this all appeared on is known to the locals to have quite a history of people on it attacking people who post anonymously. Perhaps the councillor might have wilfully or inadvertently sent out a pied piper call to others to join in with a bit of anonymity bashing? Either way that seemed to flop when hardly anybody was bothered.
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Here's some of that below (and see if you can spot a 3rd straw man argument?)

Heartening news is Ross-on-Wye people want to be involved

Now, what is super encouraging about the poll is that it does seem that the people of Ross-on-Wye would like to be involved in more of what goes on their town!

Of course there are many ways Ross-on-Wye Town Council could involve them in choosing the Mayor, no laws would need to change, despite the same councillor appearing telling others in various comments that they’d have to do things like lobby their MP for a change in the law.

Ummm, no they wouldn't... one suggestion was that the public could perhaps be consulted in various ways to get an understanding of their top choices for Mayor out of the candidates standing. Then Ross-on-Wye Town Councillors could easily vote the top choice in, a quick bit of rubber stamping that would take a couple of minutes. Win-win for both the Council and the public of Ross-on-Wye.

Well it doesn't look like that’s how the councillor saw it. No, for them, it was a matter of LAW. Maybe a bit of creative thinking to deliver on the wishes of the people of the town can't happen. Perhaps it's the kind of thing that should be cut off at the pass and shut down? After all, what on earth do these people think this is, a democracy?

In the meantime, it is great to see that Ross-on-Wye does have a new Mayor, Cllr Bev Pope, who has been universally welcomed to the position by all the town councillors.