You know the "slippery slope" argument, right? Yeah, sure you do! It goes like this. You warn against a particular course of action on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results. You know, "If you redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, before long you'll have all sorts of other combinations occurring." Slippery slope. It is, in fact, called a logical fallacy. And, as we all know, a fallacy negates an argument.
Interestingly, the "slippery slope" fallacy is a little unusual in that it is only a fallacy if it doesn't occur. If it occurs, it was not a fallacy.
So when the news reports a married lesbian threesome, that kind of eliminates the argument that it is a "slippery slope" fallacy. It's not a fallacy when it's a fact.
(What is that? Three paragraphs to say, "I told you so!"?)
3 comments:
Those of us with a half-way bit of common sense KNEW it would be a slippery slope. So did the polygamists, many of which are currently in the courts fighting for their right to "marry" multiple women. Canada has already been leaning towards approving it.
TOLD YA SO!!!
I also intend to post on this story, as well as find a way to get it on FB and any other forum to which I have the ability to do so, including everyday conversation (should it provide the opportunity). This presents itself as the perfect "I told you so" and should be pointed out that way with fervor. The strategy of insisting the use of the slippery slope as fallacy was from the first, merely a ploy to promote the concept that SSM opponents were goofy and their opinions more so. To now shout loudly that we indeed did tell our fellow citizens so is imperative for forcing them to finally view the situation from a position of logic and fact, rather than emotion based rhetoric and wishful thinking. We need to be saying, "THIS is what we SAID would happen, and it is now happening. Perhaps now you will not so quickly blow us off." They will eventually have to, at the very least, work a little harder to provide real justification for their demands.
Since when did they need to provide justification for their demands other than "It feels right"?
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