Straw man fallacy is an erroneous line of reasoning that occurs when someone substitutes an opposing argument with a distorted, oversimplified, exaggerated or misrepresented version of it in order to make it easier to defeat.
Straw man arguments give the impression of refuting their opponent’s actual position, but in reality, they attack a position or view that their opponent doesn’t really hold. The distorted version of the claim may be taken out of context, focus only on a single aspect of the original argument or be only remotely related to it.
As such, this fallacy takes the following form:
Person 1 makes an argument X.
Person B creates a distorted version of person A’s argument (the “straw man”).
Person B attacks the distorted version of the argument X.
Straw man fallacy in 5 minutes