Fallacies

The Purdue OWL has some fantastic examples of fallacies. One category of those are Ignorantio Elenchi fallacies, or Irrelevant Conclusions. A subtype of this is the Straw Man fallacy, which oversimplifies the opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow view. For example,

People who don't support the proposed state minimum wage hate the poor. 

I competed in collegiate policy debate my first semester of college and this was absolutely the most frustrating sort of argumentation, because an effective straw man makes the opponent look ignorant if they are unable to recognize the fallacy and combat it. The name of the fallacy explains why it is so frustrating to be a victim of this false logic. A professor from Carson-Newman University explained it this way: the straw man comes from the idea of a boxer fashioning an opponent out of straw and then easily knocking it over in the ring before a cheering audience. His victory; of course, "is a hollow mockery, because the straw-stuffed opponent is incapable of fighting back". An opponent who uses this kind of logic can have the same effect, making you feel like a straw person with no ability to fight back. Like this comic illustrates, no matter what side of an argument you present in the face of a straw man you are wrong, and stupid to boot.

Comic from http://stripgenerator.com/strip/589005/click-clack-straw-man/