Librarian, Liar or Lunatic
A false dichotomy (also known as a false dilemma) is where you are asked to choose an option when there are, in fact, more options available.
An example of this would be where I may tell you that Bob claimed he got an email from Jane saying that she is a Librarian. Here I would then ask you if you believed that Jane was:
- A genuine Librarian
- A lair
- A lunatic
You are being made to choose from a selection of options that do not cover all the possibilities. What about:
- The email might have been spam that looked like Jane sent it
- Jane might not exist
- Jane might have misspelled “Libran”
- Bob might have been lying to me
- Bob might have misread “Libran”
- I might have been lying to you
- And so on
It’s important that when you are presented with a finite number of choices that you make sure that those are the only choices available before jumping on any bandwagons.
It’s always good to end on a quote from a great thinker:
“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause)”. – George Dubya Bush
Applause.
