College students familiar with my study guide know that I am especially keen on spotting straw man arguments. A straw man argument is constructed against an imagined or perceived opponent who is unrealistically stupid and/or heinous. For instance, if I say, "conservatives want to destroy women, but I support their liberty," I am doing the straw man thing. It's too easy. Obama's first four years as president were particularly strong for the straw man industry. For 2013, though, I think it's time to let some of these overworked and worn-down figures rest, so they can have some down time in their respective cornfields, where they might actually succeed in scaring crows. They haven't done such a great job of scaring away conservatives. Straw Man #1 How about we give a rest to those anti-education Christians who think the earth is only 6,000 years old? Academics proffer many references to a particular phantasm of their liberal paranoia: the anti-education corporatized Christian who flirts with intelligent design and must therefore reject all of science and....
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