20 How to Win Every Argument
(Some people might think you partly right. Others might be with you
on some things, against you on others. The vast majority probably do
not care enough to have an opinion at all.)Some situations in life have infinite gradations; others offer a
straightforward choice. There are many intermediate shades
between light and dark, but not all that many things between a
boy and a girl. The fallacy of bifurcation consists in taking the
limited choice of the second class into situations more properly
covered by the first.
There are two types of people in this world: the rich and the suckers. Do
you want to get rich, or are you happy to remain a sucker?
(In fact there are degrees of richness, as there probably are of sucker-
dom. You can be rich by comparison with some, but poor when set
alongside others. Suckers, too, seem spread across a continuum.)The mistake is made by the denial of extra choices. In limiting
the field, the perpetrator is leaving out of the discussion material
which could well influence the outcome. The fallacy this time is
caused not by the intrusion of irrelevant material, but by the
exclusion of relevant items.
Bifurcation is used to limit choice. Large political parties
employ it to squeeze out smaller ones by denying that they are
valid options. Fanatics, for and against, use it to flail the vast mass
in between who cannot be bothered. Ideologues use it to classify
people into one category or another, rather than admit to the
vast range of individual opinions.
One of the more irritating uses of the fallacy of bifurcation
occurs in the collection of statistical information. Marketing
research polls, along with official forms, can only work by
assigning people into broad categories. Information is often
requested with the answer 'yes' or 'no' when the individual