definition of a strawman?

Question

do we all fall under that catigory

Answer 1

In logic, debate, or politics, a "straw man" is a misstatement of someone else's position. You distort your opponent's position to make it something easier to attack (just like a straw man is easier to beat up than a real one). So if someone says " I think sick elderly people should be able to choose a painless death", you would be setting up a straw man if you said "The candidate for the Blue party favours killing off grandmas and grandpas. Our party things our senior citizens are more important than that!"
Are we all straw men? Only if we are all something less than what we really are.

Answer 2

Generally, a strawman is a substitute person who has no actual purpose except to fulfill a technical legal requirement.

In addition to the examples above, the use of a strawman was part of old property law when there was joint tenancy (one parcel of land owned by more than one people). Joint tenancy normally has rights of survivorship, meaning that when one joint tenant died, the property would go automatically to the remaining joint tenants, not by will or inheritance.

However, if a joint tenant sold their share of the property to another person, then the joint tenancy was (fully or partially) broken. That other person would only be a "tenant in common" and their property interest would pass by inheritance or will just like any other property.

What does this have to do with strawmen? Well, let's say persons B and C owned property in joint tenancy. By law, the survivor would automatically take the whole property. But if B sold his share to D, then D and C would own the property as tenants in common (no rights of survivorship). So, what would happen was, B would sell to D (thus ending the joint tenancy) and then D would sell back to B. The result at the end was that B and C would hold as tenants in common rather than as joint tenants. D merely acted as a strawman, not actually having any interest in the property but serving the legal fiction of it being a third-party sale.

Many modern laws have done away with the need for a strawman, by allowing people to accomplish the same thing without going through the technical loophole. The reasoning is that if you can achieve the same end result by involving a third-person momentarily, why risk fraud by requiring the third-party. Just eliminate the middle steps.

Answer 3

Straw man is a candidate known to have no potential of defeating a political opponent in an election.

Answer 4

A straw man is a front for somebody, ie somebody who acts as a front for somebody else's questionable of illegal activities.

2. unimportant issue or person; an issue or person of little importance or relevance, brought up to be shown as an easily defeatable idea or adversary.