Black-and-White Fallacy

Before discussing this fallacy, let's acknowledge it's various names:

• False Dichotomy

• The Either/Or fallacy

• The False/Faulty Dilemma

• False Choice

There might even be more.

Regardless of what you choose to call it, this fallacy occurs when an arguer limits the conclusion to only one of two, often extreme, possibilities and refuses to acknowledge that some elements of both or a moderate conclusion could, in fact, be a possibility.

The Black-and-White Fallacy is often used when an arguer is trying to draw a line in the sand or to over-simplify a complex argument.

A close relative to the Black-and-White Fallacy is the False Dilemma. A False Dilemma occurs when an arguer pits two unrelated claims at odds with one another when they don't necessarily have anything to do with one another. This is also related to petitio principii (begging the question). Yeah, there's a lot of overlapping between some of these fallacies.

Example:

Post-September 11, 2001 speech, U.S. President George W. Bush made the famous declaration to the world that: "You are either with us, or you are against us."

Example from Lyndon B. Johnson's political ad: 

"We must either love each other, or we must die."

Example: 

A common use of the black-and-white fallacy in politics is when politicians say something along the lines of: 

"America, love it or leave it!"

Or, maybe, just don't have a strong love or dislike and stick around if you want and try to change the things you don't like? 🤔

Example:

Protestor: "Why would we take in Syrian refugees when we have homeless military veterans? Clearly, we need to take care of them instead."

Possible response: "Uh... we can do BOTH, right?"