All right, let’s get this party started. We are diving in today with our first fallacy, and we’re going to start with the Either/Or Fallacy.
The either/or fallacy happens when someone makes it seem like we have to choose between two things, and two things only. But what it’s actually doing is setting up a false dilemma between only two choices. And usually one of the two choices is so absurd or unthinkable that we are forced to choose the other option. It oversimplifies the subject by reducing it to only two sides or choices.
Here’s the problem with this thinking: most of the time, there are more than just two choices!
Let me give you a few kind of silly examples: a hungry child says to their parents, “If you don’t get me McDonald’s, I’m going to die of hunger!” Are those really the only two options?? Is he going to die from not going through the McDonald’s drive-thru? Or could they go home & eat the lunch Mom has planned? Or could their parents pull out a snack from their backpack? Or can they eat something from Subway instead? Lol…there’s a ton of other options than just McDonalds or die.
Or how about this one: “You’re either a dog lover or a cat lover”. Is that really true? Couldn’t someone like both dogs and cats? Couldn’t someone like neither dogs nor cats? Couldn’t someone like only small dogs and furless cats? You see how this sets up a false dilemma between two options when in reality there could be a lot of other options in between?
Or how about a Political candidate who says something like this: “If you vote for my opponent, you clearly hate our country?” Hmmm…really? Is that really true? Or could there be a whole range of other possibilities or options between those two choices?
Here’s another real-life example that I saw recently: The meme of the picture of the white/black kids sitting at a diner, with what appears to be the white kids pouring a drink on the black kids. The source was not noted or verified, however. The caption: “Critical Race Theory lesson one: Your grandparents identify with one of these two groups, and have handed down their values.”
Showed this to my then 13-year-old daughter & asked her what she thinks…
For instance, in the scenario this meme was creating: were there really only TWO kinds of people during the civil rights movement: those who were actively mistreating african americans and the african americans who were being mistreated?? Certainly those two groups of people existed, but there were also white people who were actively involved in helping the civil rights movement; there were politicians trying to change the laws; there were people who kept to themselves & lived a quiet life…and there were also African americans who didn’t sit quietly and take the mistreatment & abuse, they fought back.
So to say there’s only TWO kinds of people in this very complex situation is simply not accurate. It is the either/or fallacy.
And I just want to point out that this particular example in this meme is also meant to play on your emotions…to incite you to feel a certain emotion to get you to agree with the point they’re trying to make! In this case, they’re trying to get you to agree that Critical Race Theory is right based on how you are made to feel about a particular scenario rather than by deciding whether or not it’s right based on presenting the actual facts & merits of the theory itself. See how emotionalism sneaks in there? Should we learn from history? Yes - we must! But creating a false dichotomy between only two options to induce an emotion in people doesn’t do it.
Now, is every either/or scenario a fallacy? No! Sometimes the two options really are the only two options in a given scenario! For instance: “The Red Sox will either win the World Series or they won’t.” This isn’t a fallacy, it’s true. There’s no such thing as a tie b/c they keep playing until there’s a clear winner. So in this case, there aren’t a bunch of other options between the two given options, there are only 2, so this is not a fallacy.
In every episode, I’m going to give you a question that you can ask yourself to determine if a fallacy is being committed: Here’s the question to ask yourself when you’re facing an either/or fallacy: Is it really true that these are the only 2 possible options here or could there be other options in this scenario? *repeat*
Ok, there you have the either/or fallacy! as you start to notice them in your real life, I’d love to hear them! Send them to me and I just may share that example on the show or on Instagram to help others get better at recognizing this fallacy!
Join me next time when I’ll teach you about a fallacy called Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc. Yep - it’s a mouthful, but I promise, you’ll get it!
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
