Name that rhetorical device: Setting up opposing extremes
June 18, 2023 10:48 AM Subscribe
What is the name (if there is a name) for the rhetorical device which insists that the listener identify with, or agree with, one extreme or the other? Common example: "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
Best answer: Might not be exactly what you're thinking of, but:
False dilemma/dichotomy
One of the options might be presented as a strawman
Splitting - although that's used more as a psychological thought framework than a rhetorical fallacy
posted by LionIndex at 10:54 AM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
False dilemma/dichotomy
One of the options might be presented as a strawman
Splitting - although that's used more as a psychological thought framework than a rhetorical fallacy
posted by LionIndex at 10:54 AM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't know if it's a formal rhetorical device -- it is a framing often used in political communication, where it is used to stoke polarization (e.g. "you are either with us or against us"). You can think of it as a false dilemma (or false dichotomy) logical fallacy. In formal logic terms I believe it would be a form of exclusive disjunction.
posted by virve at 10:57 AM on June 18, 2023
posted by virve at 10:57 AM on June 18, 2023
Excluded middle
posted by Daily Alice at 11:00 AM on June 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 11:00 AM on June 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: XKCD on false dichotomies
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:15 AM on June 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:15 AM on June 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
From https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/False-Dilemma:
"False Dilemma
(also known as: all-or-nothing fallacy, false dichotomy [form of], the either-or fallacy, either-or reasoning, fallacy of false choice, fallacy of false alternatives, black-and-white thinking, the fallacy of exhaustive hypotheses, bifurcation, excluded middle, no middle ground, polarization)"
posted by enfa at 11:16 AM on June 18, 2023
"False Dilemma
(also known as: all-or-nothing fallacy, false dichotomy [form of], the either-or fallacy, either-or reasoning, fallacy of false choice, fallacy of false alternatives, black-and-white thinking, the fallacy of exhaustive hypotheses, bifurcation, excluded middle, no middle ground, polarization)"
posted by enfa at 11:16 AM on June 18, 2023
I keep this link handy to Carl Sagan's "Baloney Detection Kit" in which he identifies that kind of statement as #14: excluded middle, or false dichotomy (which have already been listed above, although I must say that XKCD comic is fantastic).
posted by forthright at 1:16 PM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by forthright at 1:16 PM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by sacrifix at 10:53 AM on June 18, 2023 [4 favorites]