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This is probably similar to my preceding question:

What's the name of the logical fallacy where a debater extends a statement far beyond the original statement to make it true?

but I'm not sure it's the same, because this time my argument is unduly extended by the other debater in order to make it false. My argument is:

old people without a pension demand State-provided healthcare

Now, if one wants to quibble, this statement may already be false because of course there may elderly citizen without the financial means to sustain their increased health needs (healthcare costs increase with age), which however don't expect support from the State. However, I think we can all agree that it has a high chance of being true for the majority of old people without a pension. The debater modifies it to

old people demand State-provided healthcare

which is clearly bullshit (many old, rich people definitely don't require State-provided healthcare for themselves, and may even be against extending such coverage for others, since it would likely require for them to pay more taxes).

What's the name of this fallacy, or pseudo-fallacy, or rhetoric? Not sure it's technically a logical fallacy, but I still think there may be a name for it.

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  • Your problem could be resolved by you adding a QUANTIFIER to your proposition. What you did was leave the door wide open for interpretation. The ALL quantifier would make things clearer if your claim is 100 percent true without exception. If your claim has exceptions then you cannot use the ALL quantifier. You can use the SOME quantifier. In deductive reasoning the some quantifier expresses there is at least one true case in your claim. In the worst case is both of you are using the Some quantifier. You should just call out your opponent for not citing you correctly. Write your claims down.
    – Logikal
    Sep 27, 2019 at 14:44

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It's a straw man argument: where you change an argument someone's made to make it weaker than it is, and then refute it as if it were the other person's argument:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

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