Black & White
Other Names
Description
A black and white fallacy or false dichotomy is when you ignore subtlety, nuance or caveats, and use oversimplification to try to convince your audience that they only need to make a simple choice between two options, when in reality, many more choices or possibilities exist.
This is often combined with exaggeration so that one option appears extremely bad, making the other option appear good by comparison, or at least the lesser of two evils.
Example
You don't support PETA? Why do you hate animals?
Famous Examples
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Would not the people of the Philippines prefer the just, humane, civilizing government of this republic to the savage, bloody rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued them?
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Will you affirm by your vote that you are an infidel to American vigor and power and practical sense? Or, that we are the ruling race of the world...
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Think of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who will build a soap-and-water, common school civilization of energy and industry in Cuba, when a government of law replaces the double reign of anarchy and tyranny.
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It means active, vigorous, constructive investment of every dollar of moldy and miserly capital in the land.
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And everyone's wearing like pink and little green non-threatening, you know, colors, and this is what we face. This is what men look like now, on average. In fact, I used to bash men who were all into being big and muscular with tattoos and black on and going "raagh", now I get it! You don't wanna be like these people! Okay?
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Obi-Wan Kenobi: Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic - to democracy.
Anakin Skywalker: If you're not with me then you're my enemy.
Context: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith -
Once the war against Saddam Hussein begins, we expect every American to support our military, and if you can't do that, just shut up. Americans, and indeed our foreign allies, who actively work against our military once the war is underway, will be considered enemies of the state by me.
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There is no fixed physical reality, no single perception of the world, just numerous ways of interpreting world views as dictated by one’s nervous system and the specific environment of our planetary existence.
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But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there is no road between.
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What I said was if you're wearing a visor and you're going for safety, OK. But don't go around being a tough guy.
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When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity."
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If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, "he that is not with me is against me". The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security.
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Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
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Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.
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Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price.
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Please talk a little bit more about salt because that's one that comes up all the time with people they want to tell me that salt's bad for you and I'm like goddamnit salt is an essential nutrient. You'll die without it.
Context: Joe Rogan Experience #1058 -
You're either with me or against me, Clark. Choose right now.
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You're either for us or against your country. It's as simple as that.
Context: Catch-22 (book by Joseph Heller, film) -
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
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It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
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Neo: This, this isn't the Matrix?
Morpheus: No. It's another training program designed to teach you one thing. If you are not one of us, you are one of them.
Context: The Matrix (film) -
Because of the Left’s runaway science denialism, college students have also been taught that carbon dioxide is a poison rather than plant food.
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In truth, nearly all plants on Earth consume carbon dioxide as a critical nutrient. Higher CO2 means more rainforests, faster growth of food crops and more “green” planet-wide. Yet stupidly, Leftists have been brainwashed to believe that CO2 is toxic to the planet. (Which just goes to show you how liberalism can convince some people that 1+1 = 5.)
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Instead of the warming we were promised by Al Gore, we’re actually getting subzero chills across much of the country. The National Guard has even been mobilized in some areas to deal with the extreme cold and snow fall. How is this possible if the Earth has been “warming” for a couple of decades as Al Gore promised?
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Look I'm not like Rick so you are free to do as you please. But there comes a time in every man's life where he must choose the foundation on which his legacy will be built: one of compromise, or one of blood.
Context: Rick and Morty season 3, episode 5 - The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy -
My friends, there's a revolution coming when mankind discovers who we are and what we can do. Each of us will face a choice; be enslaved or rise up to rule. Choose freely but know that if you are not with us then by definition you are against us. So you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me and live like kings and queens.
Context: X-Men: First Class (film) -
Those who are not with me are against me, and I crush anyone who stands against me!
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If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, they wouldn't have declared their independence from it.
Context: The Colbert Report (television show) -
Now, I've never been a fan of amphibians. Not only do they strengthen the argument for evolution, they are nature's fence sitters. Come on, amphibians. Which is it? Water or land? Pick one, we're at war.
Context: The Colbert Report (television show) -
George Bush: Great president or the greatest president?
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Either you are for the war [in Iraq] or you hate America
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You're either Nexus, or you're against us.
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Here's something Direct TV won't tell you. They hate puppies.
Fact: They charge you every month for HD service.
Fact: Time warner HD cable is free - saves you what could be hundreds of dollars. You could spend those hundreds of dollars on like a mountain of dog food.
Fact: puppies love dog food therefore Direct TV hates puppies.
Context: Advertizement -
It is with absolute frankness that we speak of this struggle of the proletariat; each man must choose between joining our side or the other side. Any attempt to avoid taking sides in this issue must end in fiasco.
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In a world without God, who's to say whose values are right and whose are wrong? There can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments.
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