Straw Character: Difference between revisions

** In ''[[Starship Troopers]],'' Heinlein jumps to the opposite end of the spectrum, advocating disenfranchisement of all non-veterans, but also corporal punishment for convicted criminals, as well as ''capital'' punishment for insane persons who commit homicide. This is all justified with various arguments comparing people to dogs.

** In "Stranger in a Strange Land," Heinlein once again goes back to libertarian views involving a rich and famous [[Mary Sue]] writer/doctor/lawyer, protecting an even ''more'' rich and famous [[Mary Sue]] Martian/Changeling/cult-leader from a human society of fascist-politicians and religious-fanatics who want to stop/control/kill him—sort of an interplanetary version of ''Atlas Shrugged,'' along with arguments comparing humans to monkeys and God.

* [[Kurt Vonnegut]] was also quite the [[Strawman Political]] writer - using absurdly simplistic extremes which make a strawman look like [[Iron Man]]: in ''Welcome to the Monkey House'', he attacks population-control with a society that forces people to take drugs that kill their sex-drive. Meanwhile in ''[[Harrison Bergeron]]'' he attacks egalitarianism by featuring a society where everyone is forced to handicap themselves so that everyone will be ''truly'' "equal," with strong people being forced to carry weights, smart people being forced to wear noise-making headphones to disrupt their thinking and marry stupid ones, and good-looking people being forced to marry ugly ones etc.

** Harrison Bergeron [[Poe's Law|is most likely a parody.]] Unless Vonnegut felt being an ubermensch lets you defy gravity.