Talk:Straw man

More about steelmanning
I'd like to see more about the steel-manning concept. It strikes me quite close to John Stuart Mills thoughts:. Sjmantyl (talk) 07:58, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed! -Reagle (talk) 16:30, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I notice that no one has claimed to identify the original source of the term "steelman" in this sense. I'd like at least to see that; then ideally reinstate a separate page. The earliest reference I can find is John Salvatier on 2012-06-10, predating the Messinger ref given in the article. Simon Grant (talk) 20:17, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I would like to see examples of it as I do not fully understand what steelmanning is. 98.240.235.151 (talk) 14:42, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54 206.116.11.101 (talk) 21:01, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Omit reference to Nixon's speech
The reference to Nixon's Fund speech as an example of a strawman argument should be omitted. The speech described the fund in question and Nixon's interactions with it. The reference to Checkers was obviously meant to be a mixture of humor and sentimentality; not a cogent argument. Ironically, the reference to the speech is more like a strawman argument, distracting from the substantive parts of the speech. 84.247.42.244 (talk) 18:14, 22 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Nixon's "Checkers speech" is used as an iconic example of a straw man in almost every book on rhetoric:
 * Rottenberg, Winchell, Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader, p.315
 * Trenholm, Thinking through communication
 * Waicukauski, Sandler, The Winning Argument, p.61
 * Macagno, Walton, Interpreting Straw Man Argumentation, p.146
 * Cohen, Live from the Campaign Trail, p.310
 * Hirschberg, Essential Strategies of Argument, p.453
 * Reid, Gossin, Stancer, The Prentice Hall Guide for Student Writers, p.306
 * Leigh, The Approachable Argument, p.119
 * I think it's an excellent example and needs to stay. --ChetvornoTALK 02:47, 23 March 2024 (UTC)