Are they straw men if they are specific scenarios presented by widely read commentators? A straw man is when you misrepresent somebody's position to knock it do

Are they straw men if they are specific scenarios presented by widely read commentators? A straw man is when you misrepresent somebody's position to knock it down. But if Noah Smith wrote about a scenario where 90% of the population is killed by a virus created by some teenagers with an AI... it isn't a straw man to attack that scenario.