Presentation of only two alternatives where others exist is called Bifurcatio or Black and White Fallacy.
The argument of the disclosure demands we can see how this fallacy works.
Disclosure argument is based on one and only one possibility. UFO phenomenon exists and many believe that Extraterrestrials are visiting our planet. The UFO phenomenon doesn’t recognize alternatives and the unidentified flying objects are extraterrestrial space vehicles. This hypothesis is given as fact, and he petitioners presumably know already what must be disclosed, so they are asking for a disclosure
They adduce that “Hundreds of military and government agency witnesses have come forward with testimony confirming this extraterrestrial presence. Opinion polls now indicate more than 50% of the American people believe there is an extraterrestrial presence and more than 80% believe the government is not telling the truth about this phenomenon. “
Here we have at work another fallacy called argumentum ad populum. The argumentum ad populum appeals to popular attitudes instead of presenting relevant material. In other words is based on prejudice.
Frequently, these tricky polls ask the public if they believe in Unidentified Flying Objects and of course they believe in UFOs (who doesn’t?, )but UFOs are identified 95 % of the times as natural phenomenon or human artifacts.
Consequently, and a priory, any negative reply from the government and the scientific establishment is nothing but more cover-up.
In fact we have here at least three fallacies: The bifurcatio the ad populum and the apriorism where the petitioners establish a priori the conditions of the reply to their demands.
Why is this so? In my view, disclosure activists do not look for an honest answer, so their demands are just feeding the show. What they want is to make people believe the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a fact even if they have no evidences of what they say. The inevitable negative answer will give them the excuse to insist in their conspiracy theory, and sell more books, lectures and videos.
Tomas Scolarici
