A straw man is a situation where a person creates an artificial point of view for their opponent and then knocks it down because it is easily attacked and can't be defended. The allegory in the name of the fallacy being that a straw man is easier to attack than a real man.
So when a person is confronted with defeat in a debate, they will throw up a straw man, stomp on it, then declare victory. More weaker minded people will throw up a straw man that is so flimsy, it collapses all by itself and doesn't even require stomping. "You want Mexicans to rape my mother". Anyone who believes such a thing is inherently bad and so the accuser doesn't even need to work at defeating that belief. The problem is, the person they are accusing of that belief doesn't actually believe it. Thus, a straw man logical fallacy.
You will also see TV commentators on "news" channels invent straw men for their political opponents who aren't even there to slap them with the bullshit paddle.
Whenever some right wing dipshit is talking on TV and says, "Liberals want..." you can be sure they are tossing out a straw man fallacy. Whenever some left wing dipshit on TV says, "Conservatives want..." you can be pretty sure they are about to launch a straw man.