Sophistry
No. 10 Fallacy

False Dilemma

Present only two options when more actually exist.

Seven branches from one decision, of which only the two outermost are drawn as real options. a b c
FIG. 10a and b, the only two options presented. c, every option between them, left out.

Illustrative example

"Either we cut the education budget or the whole council goes bankrupt."

A false dilemma narrows a genuinely wider set of choices down to two, usually one clearly worse than the other, to force the audience toward the preferred option.

Real decisions rarely have exactly two options. Raising other taxes, cutting a different budget line, spreading cuts across several departments, or borrowing for one year are all real alternatives a false dilemma leaves out.

Ask “what other options exist between these two” before accepting either one.

Seen in the wild

Real, sourced instances of this technique in actual public debate.

Examples are chosen for how clearly they show the technique, not for who said it.

George W. Bush

Leans right

President of the United States

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

September 20, 2001 (address to a joint session of Congress)Official White House transcript archive of the address (opens on the source site)

Watchthe full address, on video (opens on the site hosting the footage)
Context
Addressing a joint session of Congress nine days after the September 11 attacks, setting out what the United States would demand of other governments.
Reading
Two options are offered as if they exhaust the field. In practice a government could condemn the attacks while declining to host US bases, or cooperate on intelligence while opposing an invasion. The framing puts every one of those positions on the terrorists' side of the line.

Joe Biden

Leans left

Former Vice President; 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black.”

May 22, 2020 (The Breakfast Club, Power 105.1)Rev.com verbatim transcript of the interview (opens on the source site)

Watchthe exchange, on video (opens on the site hosting the footage)
Context
Said to host Charlamagne tha God at the end of a radio interview on The Breakfast Club, after the host pressed him to come back on the show. Biden apologised the same afternoon, saying he should not have been such a wise guy.
Reading
Being black and being undecided are presented as mutually exclusive, which leaves no room for the black voter who is undecided, voting third party, or not voting at all. The dilemma also does the work of an insult: the cost of choosing the wrong branch is your identity.

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