Either/Or is a fallacy in which there are believed to be only two options for a specific situation, when really the situation is being oversimplified. An example of this fallacy in our society today is the United States' involvement with ISIS. ISIS has been, and still is, killing many innocent people, some of who are our own, along with threatening the United States. In one of these threats, an ISIS terrorist is seen in a video holding a knife over the head of an innocent journalist. This terrorist speaks directly to the camera and sends a message to President Obama stating that the journalist's life depends on President Obama's next move. After seeing this video, we believe Obama has just two options. One option being that he does not get involved with ISIS, allowing them to continue killing hundreds of innocent people, in addition to the obvious fact that they will not spare the journalist's life. The other option would be to get involved with ISIS, in which case millions of innocent lives, more of them being our people, would be taken.
Watching these events unfold, we believe Obama has been given just two options, when in reality there are truly many more options. Unfortunately, this oversimplification of the situation has led to the United States becoming involved with ISIS, creating many problems. One of which, unfortunately was the death of the journalist we saw in the video.
I think that we didn't really have any choice. It's true we could have just ignored them and let them continue to kill innocent people, but I don't see how that would be an option. How could we just sit on the sidelines and watch something this horrible happen to innocent people.
ReplyDelete