Here’s another phrase I can’t stand.
If I’ve gotten suckered into a debate (there happens to be several people in my life who love a good rousing debate) and someone says “its a slippery slope” as a justification for their argument, as far as I’m concerned the conversation is over. Because now we are just talking in absurdities. And instead of getting dragged into a reasonable debate about relevant and important subjects (which I don’t always mind), now I’m having a hypothetical argument about ridiculous and non-existant situations where anything we say has no bearing on reality or the actual argument itself. (This is what I call “quibbling” - which is just argument for argument’s sake. Don’t even bother; there are better ways to spend my time.)
I find this statement comes up a lot when discussing something like gay marriage, or legalizing marijuana.
“It’s a slippery slope. If we let a man marry a man, what next? What if he wants to marry his horse?Are you gonna let a man marry a horse (cow, sheep, its almost always a farm animal)?” Nobody mentioned farm animals. Nobody is talking about farm animals. Well, except you. Do you want to marry a horse? The argument is not whether or not it would be appropriate for that farmer to marry Babe. We are talking about two human beings, who want to commit to sharing their lives with each other in marriage and everything that entails.
If someone says “it’s a slippery slope” there really isn’t a response I can come up with that isn’t sarcastic. And I’m sure there are goat-marrying crackpots out there, but that’s not really the point. I bet when African Americans were finally allowed to vote somebody warned that it was gonna be a slippery slope. “If we let Black people vote, what next? Women??!” (While we’re here I’ll just mention that Blacks in Canada were seen as persons and given the right to vote 1837, whereas women did not get that consideration until 1929 – almost 100 years later; in the U.S it was 1870 and 1920 respectively). And I’m sure people were crying, “What next? Are we going to let my dog vote now?!”
When you insert “slippery slope” into a reasonable argument you’re suggesting that by even considering it we are all going to lose it completely. As if opening your mind to new concepts will result in a complete and utter loss of all reason and rational thought. Debating with people like that is a slippery slope too - towards futility.
"What one generation tolerates, the next embraces."
ReplyDeleteSo on a less controversial topic, let's look at how women are portrayed (or chose to portray themselves) in music...
15 years ago, an under-age Britney Spears was scandalous because she wore a catholic school girl uniform, with the shirt tied up to to show mid-rif in her music video. Last year, under-age Mily Cirus poses nude on a magazine cover.
Slopes sometimes are indeed slippery...
I realize I picked controversial subjects, I was just trying to provide illustrations of where this phrase tends to crop up. The subject isn't the point, the phrase is.
ReplyDeleteCan't you debate about women encouraging their own objectification without saying 'its a slippery slope'? To me it just implies a 'what next' mentality, where the 'what next' is purely hypothetical and can be anything you want it to be.
AND I could argue that the slippery slope could be a good thing - like the voting thing, or... democracy.
ReplyDeleteBasically what I'm trying to say is that I think saying "its a slippery slope" is just a cop-out for people who can't back up their own argument.
I love reading your blob!
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blob too!!!
ReplyDeleteI feel that when someone uses the "Slippery slope" arguement, it usually means that they already fell down that slope and suffered a major head injury on the way down. To this day any hill that has a slope of greater then 10 degrees causes a great fear to well up inside. If your afraid get some better shoes on!
ReplyDeleteBest one yet baby!
150 years ago - give or take a decade, I could look it up, but it is already late - Nietzsche (too many freaking consonants in that name!) postulated that continuous intellectual examination of every basic construct (what today we would call deconstruction) would lead to nihilism. He saw it as inevitable, irreversible, and ultimately fatal to human nature and human society. Only by a supreme act of human will could we avoid our fate. We were, to coin a phrase, on a slippery slope to our own destruction. 150 years on and (outside of a few wackos in the West who continue to insist that there is moral order in the universe and four billion Asians who never walked down that road in the first place) there is as yet no refutation of his essential premise.
ReplyDeletehm, wordy...
ReplyDeleteWell I think that just proves how ridiculous this 'slippery slope' idea is.
According to Nietzsche, and you agree - 150 years ago humanity was on a slippery slope to its own destruction. I wonder, if that's the case, shouldn't we have already self-destructed by now? How slippery is this slope? Or is it just sort of like muddy grass? What makes the slope slippery? Are some slopes more slippery than others? Are there degrees of slippery? Does it depend on inclination? (Pun intended, ha-ha)
I think Nietzsche's claim can be disputed, in fact, I would go so far as to propose that you yourself wouldn't agree with him. Maybe our wise Nietzsche never got the chance to go to Cambodia. A nation that has seen more than its fair share of suffering and depravity and destruction. And yet, doesn't there exist reason for hope in the beauty and raw potential and spirit of the people there? I think a man with your strength of faith would find impossible to be a nihilist?
I tend to think more of these "slippery slopes" are actually full on uphill battles
ahem, would find *it* impossible
ReplyDelete