“If not A then B” Thinking

One of the scourges of our time is “if not A then B” thinking. It might also be named the “false binary” fallacy or, in some senses, the “law of the excluded middle.” The idea is that if you are against one thing, then you must necessarily be in favor of a specific something else. If, for instance, you are against wokeness, then you must be a Trump supporter. Getting past this fallacy is one of the key challenges of our time, but it requires more nuanced thinking. The political binary of “left vs. right,” makes it especially hard, since we are told there is a “spectrum” and if you don’t want to be on the “left,” then you must necessarily be on the “right.” The idea that there are more options than two doesn’t even occur to many people because their operating paradigm doesn’t allow for it. But, sadly, both A and B are wrong in our current time and the Book of Mormon warned of problems we are seeing in both. Stoking of racial grievance and judging people based on ancestral wrongs is a problem warned of in the Book of Mormon, as is the tendency towards supporting an immoral strong man in defiance of democratic norms (King Men). The correct approach to most realms of life, including politics, is “neither A nor B” and until we can collectively get to this point, we will see a lot of people supporting a lot of really bad stuff from A, and a lot of really bad stuff from B.