Friends, we’ve been hacked.
Giggling GOP student groups have hacked the free speech pieties of my generation. It’s murky ahead. But recognize we’ve been hacked.— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 7, 2017
In the ensuing debates about platforms and protests, which will be extremely complex and often uncomfortable, forcing us to choose between abstract principles, tactical effectiveness, and protecting ourselves and others. We’re gonna need good tools, rhetorical as well as organizational, as we stumble forward.
One thing that I want to make sure is excised from the debates is the simple notion that slopes are slippery, that one thing naturally leads to another. We cannot assume that denying a platform to Milo, or Murray, or Peter Singer must naturally lead to denying a platform to others. It might! But we can’t assume.
Therefore, I want to remind readers who will be thick in the trenches of these debates that the slippery slope fallacy IS A FORMAL LOGICAL FALLACY. Not all assertions that a slope is slippery are fallacious, as one can make a well-reasoned argument, but the simple assertion is a fallacy.
Don’t fall for it, so to speak.