False dichotomy is functionally the same as what is being described here.
The larger problem is generations of people who have been socialized and brought up to accept lies told by people with power and positional authority. At that level it is country/culturally independent and manifests in what the content and scale of the lies are.
This is what annoys me most with the political system today. If you are opposed to open borders then the left calls you racist. If you talk about anthropogenic global warming, the right accuses you of spreading fake news.
Everything has become so partisan, nobody wants to cede even a millimeter of ground to the other side, so taking the most extreme position has become the norm in debate. It is strategic, (if you want to prevent government regulation on global warming, spending years debating on whether or not it even exists rather than on what the solutions will be is rather effective), but very disingenuous.
