Thursday, June 13, 2013

Slip sliding away


Have you noticed how more people are employing the 'slippery slope' argument in their arguments?

If we ban semi-automatic weapons or high capacity magazine clips, what's next? Will the government repeal the Second Amendment, take away all our guns and throw us in some Soviet-style gulag? Maybe they'll take our kitchen knives, and scissors and hedge trimmers? I'm not living in a country with unruly shrubbery.

This one has been making the rounds too.

If we allow the gays to marry, what's next? Are we going to allow a man to marry three women? Can a man marry a horse? A dog? A pig? What if a man wants to marry a topiary hedge which he can no longer shape, thanks to our increasingly-powerful Nanny State?

It's an exercise in irrationality.

Particularly since, with the flick of a finger, the slope can be turned the other way.

If we allow the government to cut the tax rate for billionaires when will it stop? If 22% will suffice why not 12? Why not 2%? What if the government simply stops collecting taxes? Then who will pave the roads? And who will maintain the tarmac and air traffic control tower for my Gulfstream IV?

Or what about this.

If we ban abortions, what kind of surgical operation is our Big Brother government going to prohibit next? Root Canals? Bunion Removal? Tonsilectomies? Maybe we shouldn't allow people to pass kidney stones, because every kidney stone is precious.

That's the problem with Slippery Slopers.
One fanciful flight of the imagination leads to another and another and another.

Once they get on the slippery slope, they just can't seem to get off.

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