EN BG

False Dichotomy

"You're either with us or against us." Really? Those are the only two options in the entire universe?

A false dichotomy forces you into a choice between two options while hiding the fact that others exist. It's one of the most common rhetorical tricks in politics because it works fast. The moment you accept the frame — left or right, patriot or traitor, progress or tradition — you stop thinking about what's been left out. And what's been left out is usually where the interesting answers live.

This trick works because your brain likes clean categories. Two options are easy to process. A spectrum of possibilities takes effort. So when someone presents a stark either/or, it feels clear and decisive. But clarity is not the same as accuracy. Most real-world problems have dozens of possible responses, and reducing them to two is almost always a power move by someone who benefits from one of those two options.

"You either support this policy or you don't care about children." "You're either for free markets or you want communism." Each of these sentences erases a whole landscape of positions. The goal isn't to help you decide — it's to prevent you from thinking past the frame you've been handed.

When someone gives you exactly two choices, the right move is to look for the third.

References