There are 2 reasons I can think of that may cause people to exaggerate the effects of things they disagree with:
1) Deliberate exaggeration to bring people to a cause
2) Our feelings cause us to exaggerate as we arent thinking rarionally
I was wondering if there is any information on what the actual reason is.
Likewise any time someone makes a statement people strawman it by stripping away context and exaggerating.
It just seems like it stops people actually having a conversation on important very complex issues because each side just sticks with an oversimplified exaggerated view.
