straw war
noun phrase
An argument between two or more parties consisting entirely of misrepresentations of each other’s claims.
Embla finished reading an online article and scrolled down to the comments. The first mocked the article’s author as being somehow pretentious despite the article being strictly factual. The second attacked the first’s author as being somehow misogynistic despite never mentioning gender. The third attacked the second’s author as being a “social justice warrior” for making arguments that did not appear in the comment. Satisfied that the comment thread was just a straw war and contained no genuine discourse, Embla closed the browser tab.