False Dichotomies

In my last Daily Freedom, “Drugs, Homosexuals, and Pornography,” that one of the devices used by those attempting to put something over for which there is not legitimate argument use what I call the, “mixed bag,” method, which lumps together under some vague concept disparities, some of which any moral individual must embrace and some any moral individual must oppose, like, “education;” if you reject it because it mostly means, “government supplied brainwashing,” you are accused of being anti-intellectual, but if you embrace, because you really do understand the need for learning, you become a supporter of government education.

There is another kind of device used by those attempting to put over their rationally baseless ideas which is a, “false dichotomy,” which provides to views all all the possible choices, both of which are immoral or irrational. Here are some examples: You are either pro-Israel or anti-Semitic. By, “pro- Israel,” is meant that you support U.S. foreign aid to Israel as the recipient of more aid than any other country in the world, and that you support any American military intervention anywhere in the world that is put over as support for Israel. If you object to your tax money being sent to any other country, including Israel, and do not like your tax dollars being spent on war efforts that do not protect your from anything you are labeled anti-Semitic, as well as anti-American. This absurd dichotomy is even applied to anti- Zionist Jews.

Closely related to the previous, as mentioned, you are either pro-American- militarism or you are anti-American or a pacifist. The fact that you know what war is and that all today’s war efforts are nothing more than a means of supporting the huge military-industrial complex, and that you have no objection to true defense, when necessary, is totally ignored by this false dichotomy.

You are either pro-homosexual or you are homophobic. A phobia is an irrational fear. Pointing out that homosexuality is not normal and an extremely self-destructive behavior, just a self-cutting and pica are, is not “fear” at all, and it is the view that homosexuality is normal that is totally irrational. The word, “homophobia,” was made up for no other purpose than the creation of the false dichotomy meant to repudiate those who have maintained their rationality.

You either accept the whole evolution story or you are a creationist/religionist. The pseudo-science, evolution, similar in method and purpose to environmentalism, is used as a club to bring into submission all those who oppose the leftist collectivist views that human behavior is somehow determined by evolution, and that the purpose of life is society, not individuals. To reject the so-called “theory” of evolution, only means one does not accept what has no proof or convincing evidence. Evolution is an unproven hypothesis the details of which change daily. To the question, “if you reject evolution, what is your explanation of where life and all the different species came from?” the correct answer is, “I do not know, and neither do you, and if we never know, it will not make a particle of difference to what we do know.”

You are either pro-life or pro-choice. What this really means is, “you either support government interference in the private lives of individuals or you favor abortion.” The Neanderthals that push this false dichotomy are either too dense to understand, (or intentionally evade that obvious truth), that opposition to government oppression is not support for abortion.

You either support the WOD (War On Drugs), or you favor drug use. Similar to the previous, being in opposition to the huge oppression, cost, and damage done by government enforcement of any prohibition does not mean one favors the use of whatever it is government chooses to prohibit.

You either favor some form of social control (government) or you are for (almost anything can go here) chaos, crime, or any other imaginable evil. This is probably the most widely held and promoted of all false dichotomies, of course supported by all governments. It is almost impossible for most people to believe there are independent individualists in this world who do not need or want a government, and if there were only independent individualists in the world, there never would be a government, or any reason for one.