Straw Man

A straw man replaces your opponent's real position with a flimsy caricature — one that's easy to knock down — and then knocks that down instead. "You think we should cut the military budget? So you want to leave the country defenceless." Almost no one argues for zero defence; the real claim (spend somewhat less) has been swapped for an absurd one.^[1] It wins by letting the arguer look victorious while the actual disagreement is never addressed. The antidote is to restate the other side's view in its strongest form before responding to it.