Straw man (dummy)

Imagine you're playing with your friends and you say "I want to build a snowman!" But then one of your friends argues back and says "No, snowmen are stupid because they can't talk."

Now, that argument your friend just made about snowmen not being able to talk is not really related to what you said about wanting to build one. It's like they invented a whole new argument that they can win, instead of actually talking about the original topic you brought up.

That's what a "straw man" argument is. It's like if someone takes something you said and changes it into a fake version of what you actually meant, so they can argue against it and look like they won the argument. But really, they never even addressed what you were really saying in the first place.

So just like how you wouldn't want your friend to change your idea about building a snowman into a silly argument about talking snowmen, it's important to always make sure we're truly addressing and understanding the other person's point of view in any argument or discussion.