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Luke Scholtes

Looking for examples of the slippery slope fallacy

Hey All,

I'm making a resource for high school students to learn about the slippery slope fallacy and I'm looking for some real-life examples to use such as interviews, online articles or videos. Since I'm trying to make it broadly accessible, I'd like to steer clear of potentially loaded topics such as marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia, abortion etc. I'm looking for things more along the lines of increased taxes => communism, or, legalising cannabis => all drugs become legal => society breaks down. Something along those lines. Any help would be very much appreciated!

asked on Monday, Oct 17, 2022 01:23:12 PM by Luke Scholtes

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Answers

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Dr. Richard
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When doing this exercise, don't fall into the Fallacy of the False Alternative. For example, increased taxes => communism.

In addition to communism, increased taxes could result in one or more of the following: decreased overall production, growth of the underground economy, totalitarian government, decreased revenue for the government, and so on. 

Perhaps you could have the students think about all the consequences of increased taxation. The same with the other subjects to make them less limiting and encourage the students to "stretch" their minds. 

answered on Tuesday, Oct 18, 2022 12:50:53 PM by Dr. Richard

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TrappedPrior (RotE) writes:

Good point; the "slippery slope" fallacy should not be used to dismiss the idea of causation (things that logically follow from each other).

posted on Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022 04:19:59 AM
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TrappedPrior (RotE)
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One famous example is, "if you legalise gay marriage, soon they'll let people marry animals!"

answered on Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022 04:19:04 AM by TrappedPrior (RotE)

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Dr. Richard writes:

Are you saying therianthropy should be illegal?

posted on Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022 11:40:31 AM