History Main / NoTrueScotsman

* Drawing a line differentiating the traditional version of something against revisions, adaptations, or derivatives. The traditional version may still be recognized as either the original or the authentic version. This often comes up in matters of ethnic cuisine but also socially such as the terms "geek" or "nerd" being recognized as having traditional unflattering connotations while in the years since, both terms been widely adapted and redefined to be non-derogatory. However, an individual reserves the right for themselves to favor either traditional or revisionist.

* Drawing a line differentiating the traditional version of something against revisions, adaptations, or derivatives. The traditional version may still be recognized as either the original or the authentic version. This often comes up in matters of ethnic cuisine but also socially such as the terms "geek" or "nerd" being recognized as having traditional unflattering connotations while in the years since, both terms been widely adapted and redefined to be non-derogatory. However, an individual reserves the right for themselves to reject the revisionist forms in favor of the traditional (or vice versa).

* Drawing a line differentiating the traditional version of something against revisions, adaptations, or derivatives. The traditional version may still be recognized as either the original or the authentic version. This often comes up in matters of ethnic cuisine but also socially such as the terms "geek" or "nerd" being recognized as having traditional unflattering connotations while in the years since, both terms been widely adapted and redefined to be non-derogatory. However, an individual reserves the right for themselves to reject the revisionist forms in favor of the traditional.

** Sirella, Martok's wife, who Jadzia Dax has to please before she can marry Worf. During the ceremonial reading of The Chronicle, a history of the Martok family's unbroken (until now, ahem) bloodline, Jadzia [[WagTheDirector sprinkles in her own extracurricular research]], including: a positive spin on an Oliver Cromwell-type figure in Klingon history, the revelation that Sirella's claim to nobility is false, and that her mother-in-law's ancestor was not the Princess but [[SonOfAWhore a concubine who lived out of the royal stables]].

*** In "The Siege of AR-357" Quark tries to disabuse his Human-admiring nephew, Nog, by pointing out that Humans are nice if they are in comfort, but that if those creature comforts are taken away and a human is threatened, humans are just as, if not more, ruthless than a cold-blooded Klingon Warrior, while Ferengi do not act in such a manner and try to keep peace far longer than humans would. Later, when the Camp is overrun by enemy troops, Quark kills one of the soldiers threatening him and a wounded Nog. Quark then looks at the gun and reacts in horror at the realization he grossly over estimated his willingness to compromise.

** Interestingly, the the reason why dwarves are so obsessed with honor is because what afterlife they go to is determined by if they died honorably rather than if they were good or evil. Loki teaches his followers to live dishonorably and this allows them to get a good afterlife because living a dishonorable life counts as an honorable one as long as it is done in the name of a god. So they are effectively acting like dwarves by not acting like dwarves at all, and regular dwarves seem to be fine with this.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': The deranged philosophy of the Dark Judges is that [[AllCrimesAreEqual all life is a crime]]. So in order to judge people without hypocrisy they allowed themselves to be transformed into zombies. After their whole planet had been wiped out, their leader Judge Death gathered his followers and purged all but his three closest supporters. His argument was that they were not really Dark Judges since they were too much like the living.

*** In "The Seige of AR-357" Quark tries to disabuse his Human-admiring nephew, Nog, by pointing out that Humans are nice if they are in comfort, but that if those creature comforts are taken away and a human is threatened, humans are just as, if not more, ruthless than a cold-blooded Klingon Warrior, while Ferengi do not act in such a manner and try to keep peace far longer than humans would. Later, when the Camp is overrun by enemy troops, Quark kills one of the soldiers threatening him and a wounded Nog. Quark then looks at the gun and reacts in horror at the realization he grossly over estimated his willingness to compromise.

** In the spinoff phone game ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' it is suggested that Marisbury Animusphere's suggestion of using Magecraft alongside modern technology to defend humanity [[CosmicHorrorStory from outside threats]] got him disowned by the Mages' Association, and possibly assassinated.

The TropeNamer and prime example of this sort of behavior is a hypothetical scenario (first told by British philosopher Antony Flew in his 1975 book ''Thinking About Thinking'') in which a Scotsman reads about a horrible crime in the newspaper that takes place in the English town of Brighton and smugly thinks to himself, "No ''Scotsman'' would ever do such a thing." Then something much worse happens in nearby Aberdeen and is reported on the next day. Rather than admit that he was wrong, he instead thinks, "No ''true'' Scotsman would ever do such a thing." In this case, he is retroactively changing his standards of what a Scotsman is from "someone who lives in Scotland" to "someone who lives in Scotland ''and'' meets my standards of acceptable Scottish behavior."

[[quoteright:280:[[WesternAnimation/PepperAnn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pepper_ann_geek_purity_test.jpg]]]]

** The Tribe takes the Mandalorian people's tendency to do this even further (see Western Animation below) by requiring an adult to have his or her helmet on at all times in the presence of anyone other than immediate family. The Mandalorian clan seen in the show also views working with the Empire as dishonorable, though that’s more likely to do with an off-screen event known as “The Purge of Mandalore”.

** When Din and Boba Fett recruit Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon, Boba scoffs at Bo-Katan’s aspiration to retake Mandalore, causing Bo-Katan to try to invoke this trope. Boba doesn’t consider himself to be a Mandalorian anyway, but she still manages to hit his BerserkButton when she says he’s a disgrace to his armor, and calls Jango Fett his [[CloningBlues “donor”]] instead of his father.

* ''Website/TheHardTimes'', as part of their [[TakeThat ongoing comedic rivalry]] with the entire genre of [[SkaPunk third-wave ska]], published the editorial [[https://thehardtimes.net/opinion/opinion-streetlight-manifesto-isnt-ska-theyre-good/ "Opinion: Streetlight Manifesto Isn’t Ska -- They’re Good."]]

In real life, it's most commonly found in arguments about politics, race, [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism nationality]] or religion, usually when it comes to perceived stereotypes that something [[AccentuateTheNegative negative]] "can only be done" in a specific region or group of people (especially the opponent's) and ''not'' the accuser's own group; with of course ignoring the fact that it can.

** CulturalCringe, CulturalRebel, and BoomerangBigot are this fallacy being done on one's own culture. [[note]] Using the above example, in this scenario, the Scotsman would proclaim "No true ''Englishman'' would ever do such a thing." instead.[[/note]]

In real life, it's most commonly found in arguments about politics, race, [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism nationality]] or religion, usually when it comes to perceived stereotypes that something [[AccentuateTheNegative negative]] "can only be done" in a specific region or group of people (especially TheRival) and ''not'' the accuser's own group; with of course ignoring the fact that it can.

** The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] believe this about any [[OurElvesAreDIfferent Altmer]] who do not support them. Any ''true'' Altmer should gladly follow a [[FantasticRacism genocidally racist]] faction hell bent on [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the world]] in order to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. The non-Thalmor Altmer's response is generally to say StopBeingStereotypical while ensuring the other races that [[AllGermansAreNazis not all Altmer are Thalmor]].

--> '''[[IResembleThatRemark BFG]]:''' [[ItIsPronouncedTropay Human]] ''[[ItIsPronouncedTropay being!]]'' Yes! I'd rather be like them, than like ''you!''

* ''Fanfic/CreateYourOwnFate'': While waiting in the lobby as her uncle tries to get her enrolled in a Bajoran temple's high school, Sheri Walford, a Bajoran raised among mostly humans on Moab III, is accosted by a school gang who refer to her by a FantasticSlur that translates to "bland [[memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Hasperat hasperat]]"--meaning "Bajoran on the outside only". Crosses over with CategoryTraitor since the instigators turn out to be {{Sub Par Supremacist}}s.

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[[quoteright:280:[[WesternAnimation/PepperAnn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pepper_ann_geek_purity_test.jpg]]]]

It's perhaps also worth mentioning that, among [[ManInAKilt those who wear the kilt]], a "True Scotsman" is the humorous term for someone who is confident enough to [[GoingCommando go commando]]. So if someone asks "Are you a true Scotsman," it might not be this fallacy-- they may just be wondering about your underwear.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', there's a great deal of FantasticRacism between humanity and fishmen. Arlong split off from the Sun Pirates and formed his own crew because their leader Jinbe went and became a privateer for the human-ruled World Government to help patch things up, but the worst case are the New Fishman Pirates. Their leaders hate humans to the extent that they'll kill any fishmen or merfolk who seek peace with humans. Hody Jones, leader of the pirates, is even willing to have all of Fishman Island destroyed than have fishmen and humans understand each other, all out of IrrationalHatred. But the funny thing is, unlike Arlong, who has very good reasons to hate humans, the New Fishman Pirates have never experienced human bigotry and were only taught to hate humans.

* In ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'', secondary villain Seidel Rasso gets over the philosophical hurdle that ''none'' of the Newtypes in the series actually agree with his platform of Newtypism (that Newtypes can only be born in space, are the next stage of human evolution, and therefore Spacenoids are entitled to conquer the rest of humanity through any means they see fit to use) by coming up with reasons why each of them doesn't meet his definition of a Newtype, making their objections irrelevant.

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Scourge told the police in his defense that he doesn't kill kids. And what about kids in gangs or superhero kids? "They made that choice. I enforce the consequence".

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': WideEyedIdealist Sansa believes in the KnightInShiningArmor trope. When Sandor, who hates the institution of knighthood, attempts to shatter her illusions by relating how his knighted brother Gregor abused him as a child, Sansa asserts, "He was no true knight." Of course given how much the series likes to subvert tropes, Sandor ends up being a pretty decent guy despite his apperance and even goes out of his way to help Sansa out, while many of the knights Sansa admires end up mostly being awful and even actively abusive towards her.
* The Halkans in the ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse'' are total pacifists, who insist that there is no violence of any kind in their hearts. As a result of this, anyone capable of violence cannot be truly Halkan, and will be regarded as a non-person.
* Matters of ethnicity are discussed in Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser's ''Literature/{{McAuslan}}'' trilogy of short stories. AuthorAvatar Dand [=McNeill=] discusses the agonies the Gordon Highlanders went through when accepting a draft of soldiers from the Liverpool Scottish--sons and grandsons of Scotsmen who'd settled in Liverpool but who had the accent of Merseyside rather than Clydeside. One of whom was ''black'', played the bagpipes, and applied to join the Regimental Band. The question was "Can a black-skinned Scouser be said to qualify as Scottish?" closely followed by "What's it going to look like?"
** Dand also describes the Pipe-Sergeant in these terms:
---> If he hadn't been such a decent wee man, he'd undoubtedly have been a professional Scotsman of the most offensive type.

* In ''Literature/WolfHall'', Thomas Cromwell is always getting this from various individuals. He's not really a trusted councilor, he's a strange whim of the king's. He's more Italian than English. He's Jewish, his father was Irish, he has no place among gentlemen, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'':
** In many episodes, Will often mocks Carlton for not being black enough. For example:
--->'''Carlton:''' Wait 'till we come downstairs in these tuxes. People may not think we're twins, but I'll bet they'll think we're brothers.\\
'''Will:''' You know, I don't think you'll have to worry about anybody mistaking you for a brother.
** Used a bit more seriously in the episode "Blood is Thicker Than Mud", where Will and Carlton try to join an all-black fraternity. Although they're both hazed, Carlton's is more severe than Will's, and even after he endures everything they put him through, the Pledgemaster still refuses to let Carlton join because he thinks he's a "sellout". Will quits in disgust when he finds out, and after they return home and tell Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian what happened, Phil laments: "When are we going to stop doing this to each other?"
* From the ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'' episode "Spring Break": Alexx is examining the VictimOfTheWeek and tells Horatio, "Sunburn says she's a tourist," suggesting that any actual Miami resident would ''know'' how to properly put on sunscreen.
* ''Series/TheMandalorian''
** The Tribe takes the Mandalorian people's tendency to do this even further (see Western Animation below) by requiring an adult to have his or her helmet on at all times in the presence of anyone other than immediate family. The Mandalorian clan seen in the show also views working with the Empire as dishonorable, though that’s more likely to do with an off-screen event known as “The Purge of Mandalore”.
** The series later confirms that Mandalorians have far different standards in regards to "The Way," when "our" Mandalorian, Din Djarin, bumps into [[spoiler: Bo-Katan]], and immediately turns his gratitude for saving him and the Child into fury upon them removing their helmets. As [[spoiler:she and her followers]] believe the "Children of the Watch" (the sect that raised Din) are nothing but religious zealots, they give his criticisms of them not being true Mandalorians no mind.
** When Din and Boba Fett recruit Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon, Boba scoffs at Bo-Katan’s aspiration to retake Mandalore, causing Bo-Katan to try to invoke this trope. Boba doesn’t consider himself to be a Mandalorian anyway, but she still manages to hit his BerserkButton when she says he’s a disgrace to his armor, and calls Jango Fett his [[CloningBlues “donor”]] instead of his father.
* ''Series/{{Ghoul}}'': Nida is questioned about serving in the unit, as a Muslim, when many of the prisoners they torture are also Muslims. She states they're not really Muslims in her view, since their acts of terrorism go against Islamic principles, therefore she's got no compunction (initially) with their work.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In a parody of the "It Gets Better" project, a gay man (played by Creator/BowenYang) complains about how, even though he doesn't get bullied for his sexuality by straight people anymore, he still gets bullied by other gay people because he has different tastes in music.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' writer and designer Monte Cook wasn't exactly discreet about [[CreatorsPet how much he liked Wizards]] and nor was he discreet about how much he hated Sorcerers, sabotaging the class' rules and abilities for years to keep Wizards top-tier. Another designer, Skip Williams, once went on record for openly saying that he despised the Sorcerer class and thought they were just discount Wizards. This despite the two classes playing in a very similar fashion.[[note]]For the unintiated, both were {{Squishy Wizard}} type casters with similar spell lists, Wizards drew their magic power from years of magical study and so had a wider variety of spells which they collected in ther adventures and jotted down in their spellbooks; Sorcerers got their magic from some natural quirk, maybe exposure to raw magic in an accident or a draconic ancestor going way back, and had fewer spells with more uses and gained new ones every level.[[/note]]

* The game ''VideoGame/MetalWolfChaos'' features propaganda news reports that define a ''true'' American as "anyone who supports the idea of having the families and friends of terrorist sympathisers murdered in the streets" rather than "anyone who is a citizen or long-standing resident of America".
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', if an Engineer Dominates another Engineer, one possible response is "A real Texan would've dodged that".

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim:''
** This lies at the heart of Skyrim's civil war. The Stormcloaks know that no true son or daughter of Skyrim would follow an empire that bowed to an elven treaty outlawing the worship of the Nords' patron deity Talos, while loyalists argue that no true Nord would abandon their allies in their hour of greatest need or fight against the empire that Talos himself ''founded'' before he ascended to godhood.
** No true ''[[OurDragonsAreDifferent dovah]]'' would ever flee from a fight, especially against another ''dovah''. [[spoiler:When ''[[BigBad Alduin]]'' flees from the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] after fighting them on the Throat of the World, the rest of the dragons start questioning his right to lead, and his second-in-command Odahviing actually assists you ([[DefeatMeansFriendship once you defeat him]]) because he dislikes serving a DirtyCoward.]]
** The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] believe this about any [[OurElvesAreDIfferent Altmer]] who do not support them. Any ''true'' Altmer should gladly follow a [[FantasticRacism genocidally racist]] faction hell bent on [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the world]] in order to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. The non-Thalmor Altmer's response is generally to say StopBeingStereotypical while ensuring the other races that [[AllGermansAreNazis not all Altmer are Thalmor]].
* In the ''{{VideoGame/Borderlands 2}}'' DLC ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'', Lilith is incredibly reluctant to let [[TestosteronePoisoning Mr. Torgue]] join in on their game of ''[[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]]'' because [[GeekPhysiques he is a muscular guy, so she believes he's not a true geek]] and only wants to play because being geeky is "trendy" now. It's invoked again moments later when Tina asks him "Three Geeky Questions". Torgue gets the first two right, but the third has an UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer, and he doesn't know. Therefore, according to Lilith, Torgue isn't ''really'' into geek culture. After a great deal of InelegantBlubbering from Torgue, she reluctantly agrees to let him stay as a sidequest-giver. One wonders what her problem is, since she had no problem with Mordecai playing and he is very clearly not interested in the game or anything else geeky (of course, [[AtLeastIAdmitIt he doesn't try to pretend he is]], either).

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' there are ''five'' Horde factions: the playable Horde, which includes [[TheAlliance all Horde races]] and not just [[OurOrcsAreDifferent the orcs]] like the other examples; the Dark Horde, TheRemnant of the ''Warcraft II'' Horde that is based mostly in Blackrock Mountain and the Burning Steppes; the Fel Horde, the still demon-corrupted remnant of the ''Warcraft II'' expansion Horde in Outland, mostly aligned with Illidan; Garrosh Hellscream's True Horde, which is the orc supremacist faction of the Horde civil war that plays out during the fourth expansion; and finally the Iron Horde, the pre-''Warcraft'' Horde hijacked and industrialized by Garrosh after some [[TimeyWimeyBall time traveling shenanigans]] during the fifth expansion.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' gives you two different control options for Z-Targetting: Switch (which targets something when you press the button, and then deselects when you press it again) and Hold (which requires you to hold down the button and clears your target as soon as it's released). A gossip stone claims that "real Zelda players" use the latter option.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', this is {{discussed}} in terms of the nebulous term "[[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/forreals-04 real fans]]".

* ''Website/TheHardTimes'', as part of their [[TakeThat ongoing comedic rivalry]] with the entire genre of [[SkaPunk third-wave ska]], published the editorial [[https://thehardtimes.net/opinion/opinion-streetlight-manifesto-isnt-ska-theyre-good/ "Opinion: Streetlight Manifesto Isn’t Ska — They’re Good."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction'': In "Bugs Bunny?", Bugs meets a group of "real" ([[SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism less anthropomorphic]]) rabbits who don't believe he's actually a rabbit and put him through a series of challenges to prove he is.

** Mandalorians live and breathe this trope. There are several different viewpoints on what "Mandalorian" really means--if you don't fit the strict requirements of birth, equipment, and behavior, clearly you're not a real Mandalorian, and you should give up your stolen equipment. In ''The Clone Wars'', the current leadership are actually pacifists; the planet got tired of the constant warfare that being a ProudWarriorRace caused and turned their backs on all of it. The Death Watch sect is a group of radicals seeking to restore the old warrior ways.

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': In "Mindy's Mystery", Mitchell is very snobbish and insists that Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy aren't real detectives. When they ask him about his detective case, he snorts and says "Everyone knows that a real detective never tells what his case is."