Straw Men Everywhere

Politics runs on straw men. "My opponent wants open borders" when the real proposal is immigration reform. "They want to ban all guns" when the real proposal is background checks. Every version is easier to attack than the position someone actually holds.

Social media makes it worse. A post sharing a complex view gets screenshotted with a mocking caption that twists the meaning. The distortion can spread farther than the original, so many people meet the warped version first — and react to that.