Slippery slope arguments come up all the time in legal discourse. As I'm finishing my first year of law school this week, I've already had to deal with more slippery slopes than Picabo Street. Lawyers engaged in the practice of appellate advocacy make and take slippery slopes on a regular basis: it's practically part of their job description.
Fortunately for those of us who find such arguments silly (I raise my hand here), you can take on a slippery slope in three ways (credit to Kenney Hegland of Arizona for pointing these out):
- Turn the slope around.
Like mountains, issues generally have multiple slippery slopes. If your opponent says that your argument is likely to lead down a slippery slope, you can usually respond that their argument would also lead down a slippery slope.
Abortion is a good example. Slippery slope 1: If you legalize it, babies will be killed left and right, people will be encouraged to have unprotected sex which will lead to STD's all over the place, God will get angry, and the world will end. Slippery slope 2: If you illegalize it, poor women will be pulling fetuses out of themselves with coathangers in rat-infested back alleys while rich women are flying to mountaintop clinics in Switzerland where they can enjoy a nice hot tub and massage after their abortion, God will get angry, and the world will end. If you're particularly creative, you can probably come up with a slippery slope for any policy choice in between.
- Stick something in the ground to break the fall.
A real slope doesn't have to take you all the way to the bottom of the mountain. Rhetorical slopes are no exception.
"Yes," you might argue in response to the abortion rights advocate's slippery slope, "but we can mitigate that effect by working through the United Nations to create an international regime that protects the rights of the unborn, thus eliminating the effect of..." Or, conversely, "Yes, but the spread of STD's would still be halted by the common fear of contracting an STD; the only practical difference would be a reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies..." You get the picture.
- Argue that falling down the slope wouldn't be that bad.
"So what if we make God angry? We always make Him angry. He hasn't smitten us yet. Why would He start all of a sudden?"
So give slippery slopes the treatment they deserve.
Rhetoric will thank you.