Friday, July 03, 2020

"The slippery slope" mischaracterized



One example of the mischaracterization that I talked about yesterday is Scott Adams* and his automatic mischaracterization of "the slippery slope".

He says there is no such thing as the slippery slope because "nothing continues forever". Things only continue until they meet enough resistance to stop them. Fair enough.

However, no one claims that the slippery slope has to continue forever; only that it has to continue far enough to hit certain intolerable levels. To become worse than the current situation. That something stops at that level because it has become intolerable isn't a solution. Not when it shouldn't have begun at all. Anti-gun legislation being a perfect example. No amount of "gun control" is ethical or OK. I am not worried that it will continue forever until guns are nonexistent and can't be re-invented, I'm angry that it went too far the first time some perverted power-mad anti-gun bigot imposed the first anti-weapons policy.

The slippery slope is real, even though it can't continue forever. It doesn't need to continue forever to be a real problem. It's vital to prevent the slippage from ever beginning.
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*It's always interesting to me to see how an intelligent person mischaracterizes things they don't like to try to make them seem wrong and to make it seem smart to be on the other side.
It's discouraging to notice how often it works.

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YOU get to decide if I get paid.
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