How to Lie About Social Problems — Slippery Slopes
This is going to be one of several articles on logical fallacies that pundits and politicians will use to mislead us about social policy. We can fall victim to a variety of errors in our thinking when we consider social problems, why they exist, what causes them, what can be done, how do we know what solutions will work.
This post covers one of the more common fallacies that ideologues trot out when talking about social problems. You’ve seen or heard a few variations of it before, probably.
Men Will Marry Goats
Can this happen if we accept gay marriage? Might women begin to marry vacuum cleaners and yoga mats? Why not? Gay marriage kind of makes it okay for everyone to marry anything. Right? Right!
Now, if that line of thinking seemed ridiculous, well, that whole argument is absurd. It seems hard to believe reasonable people would think that people will start marrying goats, appliances, underage children, or horses. But this is a silly and real example of a slippery slope. If we allow men to marry men and women to marry women, it is inevitable that society will come to accept other bizarre arrangements.
If you want to learn more about slippery slope arguments, you might want to read about them here:
Thinking Rationally About Consequences
If you follow gun control discussions at all, you may have encountered the idea of a red flag law. These laws allow authorities to take someone’s firearms temporarily if the person shows signs of being a danger to themselves or others. The details vary by state and locality, but the idea is just that simple. Now, these laws have drawn criticism because they deprive a gun owner of due process and they can be abused. Susan can punish her cheating boyfriend by calling the cops and saying he’s threatened to turn his Bushmaster on her and her kids. The cops come and take his gun. He might get it back months later, or maybe not.
That kind of abuse seems like a legitimate concern. What might not be a legitimate concern is this — What steps come next? Maybe the law gets liberalized so almost anyone can have their guns taken for any reason. Maybe gun control advocates get a red flag law and ban concealed carry next. Then, they get handguns banned. Perhaps the next step is to ignore the Second Amendment again and ban private ownership of firearms. You may be invited to imagine the “the Left” has just this end goal in mind.
Maybe some people way out on the extreme Left side of the Left are eager to use the government to take everyone’s guns. How many people are in that group? How influential are they, really? Do you know those things or are you just guessing? It gets even harder to take this slippery slope argument seriously when you dig into the details.
Ask yourself how many things have to happen to get us from red flag laws to no guns allowed. Think about that for a few minutes. Considering established law, public opinion on guns, the Constitution, and any other factors that seem important. You’ll see how there really is no slope to slide down.
Sometimes we’ll find the same thing when we dig into other social policy ideas. Think about gay marriage again. How many steps are there between gay marriage between adults and adults marrying children or goats or trees? Is there really any path to any of those things? Try hard to be objective, not ideological about it.
Consider another example that’s more conservative-friendly — management of our national parks. Should there be national parks, or should we turn the land over to private business? Will the land be despoiled and stripped because all that matters is profit now? Be careful here. Is there really a slippery slope from government control to private control to ecological ruin, or do you just want there to be one?
There Probably Isn’t a Slippery Slope
This article only concerns the use of slippery slope arguments to sell lies about the consequences of our policy choices. Gay marriage will lead to men marrying goats at about the same time Americans embrace socialism and start putting Christians in re-education camps. While some policies can be nice at first, until the negative consequences emerge, this is never something you can just assume. More than likely, anyone who paints such odd, disturbing, or evil scenarios is just making things up.
