The Straw Men: Book 1 (The Straw Men Trilogy)

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Sometimes, people resort to a straw man fallacy to turn their opponent’s argument into an unpopular position that’s easy to rally supporters against because it violates social norms. Claiming for instance that “those who want to legalize drugs are fine with children taking ecstasy and LSD,” is a proposition no one can argue for.

This is a wonderful rich dark tale which the author manages to balance with a growing feeling of uneasiness and fear. It is also an observational study of access and the true value of existence..”They were doing it for some god, some ideology, some fallen comrade or ancient grievance. They weren’t just doing it for themselves. Bobby realized this made a difference, and also that if we were all the same species, there was little hope for us; that nothing we ever did in the daytime would bleach out what some of us were capable of at night. Some aspects of human behaviour were inevitable, but this was surely not. To believe so was to accept that we had no downward limit. Just because we were capable of art didn’t mean what lay in front of him could be dismissed as aberration, that we could take what we admired and fence that off as human, dismissing the rest as monstrous. The same hands committed both. Brains didn’t undermine the savagery. They made us better at it. As a species we were responsible for all of it, and carried our dark sibling inside.”This is the first step of the editing process and applies to very early drafts. The editor helps you structure your ideas, decide what story to tell and find direction for your writing. If that last sentence was confusing a “ strawman ” refers to a proposition floated solely for the purpose of being shot down, giving something away that you never thought you’d get. For example, if a party proposed something really absurd like a referendum on the Treaty, you’d know that was a strawman, because it’s ridiculous and surely can only be intended to gain concessions. The plot was slower than in most thrillers with more details about the mindset of the characters and what is driving them forward rather than the actual story but I didn't mind it. The story was pieced together beautifully and transitions between the situations and characters were smooth. I like books that tell the story from alternating point of views and all the characters held my attention, even Sarah with her incoherent rantings. Each character's essence was captured and it was easy to distinguish who was thinking the particular paragraph I was reading - which made me like the book even more. The last few chapters were so explicitly described it made me wince. It was even hard to even imagine the atrocities described and to write it down in such detail was so horibble and yet so wonderfully in sync with the book. Understanding the opposing perspective enables you to craft a stronger argument of your own. When you’re able to think critically about an opposing argument and formulate well-thought-out responses, your writing is more impactful. After the first chapter or two, I realized that I had already read this book a couple of years ago, but as a stand-alone book, not having read "The Straw Men" yet. At the time I found "The Upright Man" confusing and not very good. I continued on this time, hoping that having read "The Straw Men" last week would shed a different light on the sequel, this time.

Sometimes, people resort to a straw man argument to turn their opponent’s argument into an unpopular position that’s easy to rally supporters against because it violates social norms. Claiming for instance that “those who want to legalise drugs are fine with children taking ecstasy and LSD”, is a proposition no one can argue for.

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Slippery slope arguments take advantage of the gray area between an initial action or decision and the possible next steps that might lead to the undesirable outcome. You can point out these missing steps and ask your partner to indicate what evidence exists to support the claimed relationship between two or more events. Luther, Martin. "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church [from the Philadelphia Edition of Luther's works]". lutherdansk.dk. Robert E. Smith, Project Wittenberg, Wesley R. Smith, Lucas C. Smith . Retrieved 14 September 2023. Michael Marshall writes horror under this name, but is also known for his science fiction, which he writes under Michael Marshall Smith. Perhaps he was inspired by Iain (M.) Banks, who likewise changes names depending on the genre. A straw man argument, sometimes called a straw person argument or spelled strawman argument, is the logical fallacy of distorting an opposing position into an extreme version of itself and then arguing against that extreme version. In creating a straw man argument, the arguer strips the opposing point of view of any nuance and often misrepresents it in a negative light. You can’t help but wonder what he’ll give up, though without the numbers he’ll certainly be dropping his trousers! As an aside, do people still use that phrase any more? Having written it down it doesn’t seem all that PC. Ah well, life can sometimes be that way.

This is a three-book series, but I've gone far enough with The Straw Men, and I still recommend it as a suspense/thriller.There are a few plot-holes but since this is a series I guess my queries will be answered in the next books. But even as a stand-alone The Straw Men will put you on the edge and make you rethink about every crime, every massacre, every natural disaster and every plague that threatened human lives and wonder if there was not any inherent motive to all of it. The way Marshall builds up tension is one of his biggest assets & ultimately that brings the book's downfall as the ending is not as good as it could be.It leaves a lot of loose ends though the main plot is somewhat tied up.This is a trilogy so I hope one would get all the answers in the later books.The ending brings the book down a notch in my opinion because I never like those books which has a "To Be Continued" type of story line.

Before representing an opposing argument in your writing, be sure you understand it accurately. One way you can test this is by imagining you hold the opposing point of view and writing out a well-articulated argument from that position. If possible, ask somebody who holds that opposing position if your understanding of it is accurate.In countering a straw man fallacy, try to present your position as clearly and definitively as you can. Straw Man vs Steel Man A straw man fallacy is a kind of logical fallacy that occurs when a person deliberately distorts their opponent’s argument and proceeds to argue against that distortion instead of the actual position.