I prefer to pretend history never repeats itself so I can turn a blind eye whenever history repeats itself.
They do the same thing with slippery slope. I prefer to pretend slippey slopes don't exist so I turn a blind eye whenever the slippery slope leads to shitty things.
I had an argument with my liberal brother a while ago. He was arguing for more restrictions on speech (hate speech or something I think) and I told him, who decides what is hate speech?, it's a slippery slope adding restrictions. He then said he didn't believe in "the slippery slope" fallacy, and then started using prior restrictions of speech to justify new ones (like yelling fire, etc)... literally using them as precedence. Not realizing that people back then would have said no restrictions, it's a slippery slope. If you allow those restrictions people will use them to argue for more.
Also had an argument with him a long time ago about abortion where he said it was absurd, and nobody was okay with 3rd trimester abortions, and nobody was trying to make them legal. Fast forward about 6 months, NY passes legislation making 3rd trimester abortions legal, and VA tries to, and even suggests making post-birth abortion (baby murder) legal.
I'm sure if we had a discussion about it now, he would change his tune to, well it's just for rare cases, nobody actually gets them, or something stupid like that.
the slippery slope fallacy is in effect a fallacy when applied to human decision making. Humans can be rational, but at the base level are not. They are subject to impulse, greed, lust, anger, and a host of other motivations both good and bad. Slippery slope is correct when applied to inanimate or unconscious objects as they cannot exceed what they are programmed for or what is within their narrow scope of existence. Humans by their very nature explore and push the limits. That is why we are all using computers, have spacecraft, and delicious cuisines as opposed to using our bare hands to pull fish out of a river.
They do the same thing with slippery slope. I prefer to pretend slippey slopes don't exist so I turn a blind eye whenever the slippery slope leads to shitty things.
I had an argument with my liberal brother a while ago. He was arguing for more restrictions on speech (hate speech or something I think) and I told him, who decides what is hate speech?, it's a slippery slope adding restrictions. He then said he didn't believe in "the slippery slope" fallacy, and then started using prior restrictions of speech to justify new ones (like yelling fire, etc)... literally using them as precedence. Not realizing that people back then would have said no restrictions, it's a slippery slope. If you allow those restrictions people will use them to argue for more.
Also had an argument with him a long time ago about abortion where he said it was absurd, and nobody was okay with 3rd trimester abortions, and nobody was trying to make them legal. Fast forward about 6 months, NY passes legislation making 3rd trimester abortions legal, and VA tries to, and even suggests making post-birth abortion (baby murder) legal.
I'm sure if we had a discussion about it now, he would change his tune to, well it's just for rare cases, nobody actually gets them, or something stupid like that.
the slippery slope fallacy is in effect a fallacy when applied to human decision making. Humans can be rational, but at the base level are not. They are subject to impulse, greed, lust, anger, and a host of other motivations both good and bad. Slippery slope is correct when applied to inanimate or unconscious objects as they cannot exceed what they are programmed for or what is within their narrow scope of existence. Humans by their very nature explore and push the limits. That is why we are all using computers, have spacecraft, and delicious cuisines as opposed to using our bare hands to pull fish out of a river.