Today, I’ll be analyzing the “false dilemma” fallacy (logical error) from the perspective of a domainer. As the name suggests, we’re dealing with such a fallacy whenever someone tries to make it seem that the two options which are being presented are the only possible situations despite the fact that there are actually more.

Here’s an example that will most likely be quite common during domaining industry debates:

“Will the dot com space continue to have good investment opportunities for domainers *or* will the new gTLD space have good investment opportunities for domainers from now on?”

As can be seen, we’re dealing with a… well, false dilemma 🙂

The great thing about a lot of fallacies is that the name speaks for itself. In this case, it’s clear that there are other possibilities aside from those two.

What if both the dot com space and the new gTLD space will have good investment opportunities for domainers?

What if none of them will have good opportunities for domainers in the future?

The tricky thing about the false dilemma fallacy is that it often tends to generate emotional involvement. By making it seem that only two possibilities exist, people are encouraged to “pick a side” and embrace the emotional dimension of the debate rather than the rational one.

Don’t make this mistake.

Whenever someone makes it seem that there are only two possibilities during a debate, don’t just take his or her word for it. Keep an open mind and you will often realize that the situation is *far* too complex for a “black or white” analysis to be enough.