Picture this, you are having coffee with a group of people and someone mentions that James Cameron is coming out with a sequel to the movie Avatar. You then point out that it's likely to be successful because Avatar was the "highest grossing movie of all time."
I then chime in and say "Actually, that's false. Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind is the highest grossing film of all time."
Thoughts?
Aside from the fact that I'm a jerk, what's wrong with my statement? Two things stand out. First, I changed the standard. Avatar really is the highest grossing movie of all time, so your statement was correct. I'm the one who decided to change the definition of "highest grossing" to include an inflation adjustment. So in a version of the straw man argument, I changed the standard that you used and then declared that your statement was false under my standard.
Moreover, in addition to your literally being right, most people would say that you are correct in a social sense because the "inflation adjusted" standard that I picked is an unusual standard. After all, when the Wall Street Journal says that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high, they don't have to issue a correction and point out that the inflation adjusted record high was (until recently) January of 2000.
With that in mind, check out this "analysis" by the Republic's Fact Check Intern of a statement by Governor Ducey:
THE COMMENT: “We’re spending more money than has ever been spent in the history of K-12 education.”
The fact checker gives a lot of background and then eventually gets to this sentence.
Ducey's administration says the more than $6 billion provided by the equalization funding formula in fiscal 2016 is the highest total spending on record. That is correct, but it is the only measure that shows fiscal 2016 as the highest for K-12.
Look at the first three words of the second sentence the ones that repeat Ducey's claim and then conclude "That is correct."
The intern then goes on to--you guessed it--adjust the numbers for inflation and add back a capital spending adjustment or two and by using this self-created methodology claim that Ducey "mostly" wrong.
Keep in mind that the Fact Checker actually admitted that Ducey's original statement was correct and then ask if this is fair: