False choice - Definition and Overview

The logical fallacy of false choice is a correlative based fallacy in which options are presented as being exclusive when they may not be.

It's often used to obscure the likelihood of one option or to reframe an argument on the user's terms.

Examples include:

• "The CIA director has misled the nation using false intelligence; he must either be incompetent or lying."

There's nothing to prevent someone from being both incompetent and a liar, or from being neither.

• "I am not questioning his patriotism, I'm questioning his judgment."