One of the things to watch out for in politics is the false binary. Once you start looking for them, you’ll notice, like a word whose definition you’ve just discovered, that they’re everywhere. “Doing nothing is not an option,” politicians will tell you when they’re trying to sell an unpopular policy. Usually, in these situations, the other side isn’t proposing “doing nothing” – they’re just proposing doing something different. But in the zero-sum game of political rhetoric, a detailed explanation of the subtle gradations of various pathways doesn’t get you very far.
olddogthoughts 