The Problem with Binary Thinking - by Vox Day - Sigma Game

 The Band attempts to help binary thinkers evolve beyond their excessively simplistic mental framework.....

https://sigmagame.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-binary-thinking?publication_id=2265630&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=y7h5a&utm_medium=email 

Binary thinking is the most common mode of thought and it permeates the entire SSH, although Deltas are probably the most firmly entrenched in it while Gammas habitually resort to it in their endless series of “gotcha” arguments.

But it is intrinsically false, and frankly, rather stupid, because there are usually more than one way to be wrong. 4 is the only correct answer to 2+2, but 1, 3, and 537 are all incorrect answers and the fact that 2+2 does not equal 3 does not mean that it therefore equals 537.

Furthermore, there are partial truths, nuances, and contexts that are often, though not always, relevant. Binary thinking is an attempt to impose certainty on an uncertain reality, or worse, to deceive by presenting a false choice between an obvious impossibility and a falsehood. The latter is what the economist Joseph Schumpeter described as “the Ricardian vice” which just happens to be the foundation of our current economic system.......

.....The triumph of free trade theory is one of the great masterpieces of binary thinking, but there are many, many other examples. So remember, when you’re trying to simplify matters and render them down to a simple Yes/No question, there is a very good chance that you are engaging in the philosophical vice of binary thinking.