Straw Man Argument Question Pack - Free Download

Bertrand Russell argued that men should have a choice about whether to fight in World War I. His opponents said he wanted Britain to surrender to Germany. He never said that. But the fake version of his argument got him fined, jailed, and fired.

Nobody wanted to debate his real point - that forcing people to fight removes their freedom. So instead they built a version of him they could easily knock down: a traitor. An anti-British coward. Someone rooting for the enemy.

That's the Straw Man: twisting what someone said into a weaker, dumber version - then defeating the fake version and claiming victory. Your kids get strawmanned all the time. At school. At home. In every "so what you're REALLY saying is..." they'll ever be handed. This free Question Pack teaches them to catch it.

What's in the free Question Pack:

• Discussion and research questions that get kids arguing about the Bertrand Russell story - the productive kind of arguing
• A guided walk through how war hawks twisted a philosopher's plea for choice into "he wants to surrender and have tea with the enemy"
• An answer sheet, so you can run it at the dinner table or in a classroom with zero prep

The deal, stated plainly

We teach people to spot manipulation, so it would be a bit rich to hide ours. This pack is free because it's the best advertisement we have. You hand over your email, we send the download, and every so often we'll email you about new comics, book and our card game. Unsubscribe the moment we get boring. 

One email. Check your spam folder - our goodies have a talent for landing there. 

What the free pack doesn't include

The fully illustrated Bertrand Russell story. The Duchess & Bruno comic. The Spot-the-Fallacy hunt through real ads and headlines. The Code Breaker, the Draw Your Own Comic page, and the hidden Gizmo kids go feral trying to find.

All of that lives in the Straw Man Argument Activity Pack - a 20-page printed booklet, rated 5.0 by teachers and parents on Etsy and TPT. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "My kids absolutely adore the characters and story! It reminds us of horrible histories. I haven't found anything like this pack before." - Sandra

It's one of 24. Every pack takes one fallacy, one historical disaster and one comic - and turns them into a kid who is very hard to fool.