Golden Mean Fallacy: Difference between revisions

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Anita Blake]]: Vampire Hunter'', the title character considers conservatives to be bigoted troglodytes who want to exterminate vampires for being different, and liberals to be air-headed idealists who think that vampires are harmless fluffy fanged bunnies and forget that they are dangerous and not entirely human. Since Anita is a complete [[Canon Sue]], her views are entirely accurate.

** Or [[Science Is Bad|science]] and the Catholic Church. Skepticism of Langdon's postmodernist interpretations of paganism is apparently ignorant, and the Catholic Church is apparently [[Christianity Is Catholic|guilty of any irrational thing any other sect of Christianity has ever said]].

* [[Illuminatus|The Bavarian Illuminati]] however know that there must always be 5 sides.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' presents most attempts at compromise as examples of this fallacy. In keeping with the series's position on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], it seems that we are usually meant to agree with him. This is subverted in an important instance, though, when Stacy defies House's wishes and [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]] while he's in a coma following his enfarction, saving his leg and probably his life as well.

* This was part of Jon Stewart's show-ending rant on ''Crossfire''. The show was infamous for bringing on people of supremely dichotomous views, whom the hosts would then egg on into an argument. The thinking was that the producers were presenting the views of the mainstream public on an issue by bringing on their loudest extremists, with the public view somewhere between them. This point-of-view was the basis for Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity."

* In ''[[Yes Prime Minister]]'', Sir Humphrey is trying (without much success) to find an argument against a plan for banning cigarette advertising and punitive taxes on tobacco. Eventually he's reduced to "The government should not take sides." Hacker spots the fallacy at once: "You mean, impartial as between the fire engine and the fire?"

* In ''[[QI]]'', when Alan Davies talked about giving honey to bees that have been hurt in order to help them recover, Dara O'Briain responded that he would prefer to just squash it. Rob Brydon followed up with his compromise plan - drown the bee in honey.