Sci­en­tific American’s Get­ting Duped: How the Media Messes With Your Mind edu­cates us on two impor­tant fal­lac­ies used to under­mine arguments.

State­ments made in the media can sur­rep­ti­tiously plant dis­tor­tions in the minds of mil­lions. Learn­ing to rec­og­nize two com­monly used fal­lac­ies can help you sep­a­rate fact from fiction.

[…]

One com­mon method of spin­ning infor­ma­tion is the so-called straw man argu­ment. In this tac­tic, a per­son sum­ma­rizes the opposition’s posi­tion inac­cu­rately so as to weaken it and then refutes that inac­cu­rate rendition.

via Mind Hacks