the straw man fallacy
I've come around to preferring the term "strawchild".
- It de-genders the term (important for some people)
- It evokes the imagery of the kind of loser* who is only willing to engage in battle with children and/or is perhaps prone to striking them
- It conveniently sidesteps the cliche/fatigue associated with invocations of the term "strawman"
* Is this aspect of "strawchild" an instance of failure to elevate the other (i.e. steelman/starman them)? Yes.