11 Singaporean Clichés

11 cliché-fallacies that MFM and I came up with which you often see in Singapore:

1. Either do something about it or stop complaining (false dilemma).
Related: Don't complain if you're not doing anything about it. Often said even without knowledge of whether the person complaining is doing something about it.
Addendum - Related: If you are unhappy with the political system, start your own political party and run for election

2. Forget ideology, be pragmatic.

3. If we don't withhold civil liberty X, there will be chaos.

4. "if you can't do it better, shut up and don't complain"

5. "People in group/nation X have a worse time than you. Shut up and sit down." Related: "You should be grateful that..."

6. If you criticise the government, you are being ungrateful.

7. "Everyone else does it. Therefore it's alright for us to do it"

8. "X must have [selfish motive] for saying that. Therefore what X says is invalid."

9. Straw man: "there is no perfect government in the world"

10. "By disagreeing with me and trying to change my mind you are doing me a wrong"

11. (Straw man) You want the government to do a better job with respect to X, but it's impossible to perfectly satisfy everyone w.r.t. X, therefore your demands are unreasonable.