# False dilemma

*Also called: False dichotomy, either or fallacy*

- **Cluster:** False choices and ranges — Options and spectrums squeezed out of shape
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-dilemma/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/false-dilemma.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Presenting two options as the only ones when more exist.

## In the wild

> Either we ship today or the project is dead.

## How to answer it

Name a third option out loud. One is usually enough to break the frame.

## Origin and naming

Its simplest form is called the fallacy of bifurcation: one branch is offered, all others are suppressed, and the listener is pushed toward the offered one. No single thinker is credited with naming it; it became a staple of rhetoric and logic handbooks because every negotiation, election, and sales pitch keeps producing new specimens.

## More places it shows up

- You are either with the recall or you are defending a defective product.
- You either love this city the way it is or you should move somewhere else.
- Either we buy the enterprise license or everyone keeps using spreadsheets forever.
- A parent says: finish your plate or you clearly do not appreciate what I cook.

## How to spot it

- The two options arrive pre-packaged, often with one clearly meant to lose.
- The words 'either' and 'or' do heavy lifting, and nobody pauses to check the shelf behind them.
- When you suggest a third path, the reply is that it is not one of the options — as if that settled it.

## Nearby

- [Middle ground](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/middle-ground.md)
- [Affirming a disjunct](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/affirming-disjunct.md)
- [Nirvana fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/nirvana.md)
- [Package deal fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/package-deal.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma)
- [The Fallacy Files](https://www.fallacyfiles.org/eitheror.html)

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From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.