What is binary thinking?

Phrase. Denotes a system of thought that predominantly considers things in an "either, or", "right, wrong", "black, white" way, ignoring any subtleties or consideration of third or more alternatives.

In philosophy, this is know as a "bifurcation fallacy".

People who habitually think in this way are usually fairly unintelligent and unimaginative.

G. W. Bush: "You're either with us, or your with the terrorists".

Me: "Wow, Bush can only seem to understand the world through binary thinking ..."

Binary thinking is always putting things in terms of two options that are usually mutually exclusive. Binary thinking reduces it to "good" or "bad" with nothing in between. At times binary thinking is vital for decisiveness.