Strawman

Are conservatives or Republicans now taking issue with "manufactured" rainbows that appear when there is water spray from a fountain? No, that's not true: This viral 2007 video of unscientific musings about rainbows was mashed up and posted to mock conservative Republicans in 2023. In the original video, the person's political party affiliation is not readily apparent. Remixed in 2023,…

Can court case numbers be "cashed in" as U.S. savings bonds? No, that's not true: A Treasury Department spokesperson told Lead Stories this claim is "100% false." The claim appeared in a TikTok post on September 7, 2022. The caption is "#savingsbond#court." The text over the video reads: your case# is a savings bond in your name The video says…

Does an individual's name being completely capitalized on legal documents mean that they are actually considered a corporation, not an individual? No, that's not true: This assertion, often embraced by followers of the sovereign citizens movement, has no basis in fact. It's often used as a justification for the "strawman theory," which argues that an individual has two separate personas:…

Does a person's birth certificate, with their name spelled out in capital letters, create a second entity, a "straw man," that is owned by the state and is separate from the flesh and blood person given that name at birth? No, that's not true: This is an illegitimate theory promoted by several different conspiracist groups such as Sovereign Citizens, Freemen…