Politics is always presented as a case of pick your poison. Nobody ever questions the fundamental premise that we must have government. From Joel Bowman at joelbowman.substack.com:
Zohran Mamdani’s textbook false dilemmas are déjà vu all over again…
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“We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”
~ Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor-elect, from his victory speech on November 4, 2025
Here we go again…
New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, says he wants to “seize the means of production.”
He believes, “We need government supermarkets to ensure affordable access to food in underserved areas.”
And that, “Public ownership of the energy system itself is essential to transition from fossil fuels and create jobs.”
The right calls him a “communist.” The left says he’s a “democratic socialist.”
Both miss the point.
It pains us to say it, dear reader, but it’s time to rehash an old lesson for New York…
Many and varied are the dastardly devices by which the well-intentioned public is hoodwinked by their conniving political overlords. Today, we take a look at a classic Weapon of Rhetorical Destruction: The False Dilemma.
Perhaps you’ve heard the old joke…
A man is driving through the Irish town of Belfast during “the troubles.” At a traffic light he is confronted by an armed bandit who asks him: “Are ye a Protestant…or are ye a Catholic?”
Choosing his words carefully, the man answers: “Neither. I’m an atheist.”
The bandit considers this response for a second before asking: “Aye, but are ye a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?”
The realm of human affairs is notoriously messy. Rarely do we abide by such neat and tidy categorizations, especially when it comes to that most problematic of earthly undertakings: politics.
It is sometimes said that those on the so-called “left” assume those on the right have no heart…and that those on the so-called “right” think those on the left have no brain.
Libertarians, meanwhile, tend to agree.
The H.L. Mencken quote about every election being a stolen goods sale keeps me going.
The Orwell quote about not victims but accomplices are the voters is another good one.