False Dichotomy: Difference between revisions

This binary approach is also a common media trope. Simply put: it is a lot easier for an audience to understand a story where characters are villains ''or'' heroes. In the simpler romances, it is more straightforward if characters exhibit a transcendent love, or an excoriating hate. Contrast [[Golden Mean Fallacy]]. Necessary for someone to be able to [[Take a Third Option]] (though, of course, doing that instantly subverts this trope by revealing the falsity of the dichotomy.)

 

* [[If Jesus, Then Aliens]]

* [[No Bisexuals]]

 

{{examples}}

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[A Few Good Men]]'': Colonel Jessup, after having been accused of killing one of his own men (admittedly by accident): "I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post." (You either at war or not a soldier, used against a Military Lawyer)

* A [[Sherlock Holmes]] [[Outlived Its Creator|sequel-by-other-hands]] has Holmes called upon to judge which of two violins is the one Davy Crockett played at the Alamo. He quickly identifies one as a fake, but realises {{spoiler|that he was intended to; the owner wanted him to declare ''a'' violin as genuine, and so was presenting him with the false dichotomy of "which one's the fake?" They both are.}}

* [[Twilight|Bella]] believes she must either be with Edward or with Jacob. She also believes she must either become a vampire or grow ooold. Later, she believes that {{spoiler|she must either wait until her belly is full-sized to deliver, or abort it, because no life-threatening pregnancy was ever solved by putting the babies on life-support to save the life of the mother}}.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* Occurs in [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2001-11-05/ this] ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic.

 

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

** He also divides the supermarket into cheese and non-cheese. Assuming that he classifies everything ''with cheese in it'' as cheese, it's a real dichotomy...but not a particularly important one.

* On ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', Leslie tried to drum up public support for building a park by phrasing the question, "Wouldn't you rather have a park than a storage facility for nuclear waste?"

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* RPG game ''[[Paranoia]]'': if you aren't a fanatic supporter of the oppressive totalitarian regime, a loyal servant of The Computer, you are a death-dealing commie mutant traitor. This one is notable because ''everyone'' in ''Paranoia'' is a commie mutant traitor at heart, so instead of there being more than two possibilities, it turns out there's only one.

** Well, some of the commie mutant traitors do love the Computer.

 

== [[Visual Novels]] ==

* Part of a trick played on Kyousuke in ''[[G Senjou no Maou]],'' which is especially amusing because he just saw it pulled on his idiot friend. The trick pulled on his friend was the question "Which river is the longest in the world? A. the Amazon B. the Yangtze C. the Edo?"<ref>He picked the Edo river. Like noted, he's an idiot.</ref> while it was never stated that it was actually a multiple choice question, and thus the answer is the Nile. The trick played on Kyousuke comes immediately after, where he gets asked, "Will you {{spoiler|go on a date with Mizuha at a classical concert}} or somewhere else?" and he accidentally picks option one before realizing that '{{spoiler|don't go on a date at all}}' was also a valid choice, but is too proud to back down now.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The [[Xkcd]] comic strip [http://xkcd.com/871/ "Charity"].

** [http://xkcd.com/322/ "Pix plz"] was [http://chainsawsuit.com/2008/05/09/strip-363/ parodied by Chainsawsuit]. Note how the jerk distills Black Hat down to "[[Ad Hominem|Stalking girls]]" or "[[White Knighting]]". So if anyone calls someone online out on their misogyny, they're only doing it to get into girls' pants and/or out of some need to defend their honor. The actual ''content'' of the criticism is to be brushed aside in favor of [[Ad Hominem|allegations about the critic]]. To be fair to Straub, this is inherent in ''any'' accusation of "white knighting".

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The [[Love It or Hate It]] trope. There ''is'' a group of middle-of-the-road viewers/readers/players, but they are generally ignored. (However, the reason it's a trope in the first place is because that middle-of-the-road group is far smaller than for most fandoms.)

* A popular joke on [[YouTube]] is to comment on a video by reciting the number of "dislike" ratings the video has at the time of commenting and accusing all of them of something; common examples include "[X] people missed the 'like' button," "[X] people had no childhood," "[X] people are [[Justin Bieber]] fans," or some kind of threat. Such comments tend to be found in the highest rated comments, but luckily, subversions and parodies are replacing them in that spot.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Spoofed on ''[[South Park]]'':

'''Mr. Stotch''': I think you should call a doctor. I'll ground him. }}

* In the episode "Screwed the Pooch" from ''[[Family Guy]]'':

'''Khan''': D'oh! }}

* When [[Darkwing Duck]] is attempting to improve his PR, Nega Duck sabotages him by asking him if he's stopped digging potholes on Main Street. Caught up in the flow of questions, Darkwing answers "yes" right before realizing the nature of the question.

 

== Real Life ==

* Call it, [[Heads or Tails]]? *flips coin* Whups, [[Heads-Tails-Edge|looks like it landed on the edge]].

 

* When two choices encompass all possibilities.

* Normally "[[With Us or Against Us]]" is a false dichotomy but a head of state can declare that all those not declaring themselves to be allies are to be considered enemies. Since such a declaration is performative<ref>''i.e.'', if I declare you my enemy, you are my enemy</ref> it cannot be fallacious, and thus is not itself a false dichotomy, even if the reasoning that leads someone to say that is. It's not very smart under most circumstances, however.