False Dilemma-The Two Extremes Fallacy & Bandwagon

False Dilemma: Is when the speaker offers two extremes which can occur. You are given two options and a consequence to each option. It compels the listener to make a quick decision. Ex: This or that, live or die, black or white, tall or short.

Bandwagon: Urges us to support an action or an opinion because it is popular. It appeals to the human desire to belong with the crowd and not to be left out/alone.

Context: Martin Luther King Jr. is singing the song “My Country Tis of Thee” and follows the line From every mountainside, let

freedom ring… with this quote:

Quote: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up

that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sign in the words of the old Negro

spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

-MLK Page 203 Last Paragraph

Why: -MLK is implying that if you are not one of “God’s children”, you are not included in the list of people who would benefit from this new found freedom when it is gained.

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Context: Bush is talking about the ways in which we will battle terror and what will happen if we let terrorists survive.

Quote: “Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch,

yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch. We can’t stop short. If we stopped now, leaving terror camps intact and terror states unchecked, our sense of security

would be false and temporary. History has called America and our allies to action, and it is both our responsibility

and our privilege to fight freedom’s fight.”

-Bush Page 3, Paragraph 5&6

Why: -Bush is saying we can act now and fight the war on terror, OR we can not act and live a life in danger.

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Context: MLK says that they are at Washington to “cash a check” from the bank of justice. He then continues on to say that the

check has insufficient funds and prompts supporters to act now!

Quote: “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism… It would

fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment… And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off

steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is

granted his citizenship rights.”

-MLK page 201 Paragraph 3&4

Why: -People should act now or else it would go back to normal.

Context: Bush speaks of how Americans came together as a country and as citizens who care about one another after

September 11th 2001. The terrorist attack caused us to take action.

Quote: “For too long our culture has said, If it feels good, do it. Now America is embracing a

new ethic and a new creed: Let’s roll.”

-Bush Page 5 Paragraph 7

Why: -If you don’t embrace this new creed, then you are being left behind in old American thought.