Logical Fallacies
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
One of the things we try to do in our social studies and English classes is teach our students about logical fallacies. One of those fallacies is the slippery slope fallacy. The idea of censorship is one of those ideas that seems to be bandied about lately.
What’s hilarious is that everyone is familiar with the first amendment. However, it is the bolded part that most interests me. It is the one conservatives seem to miss. It is amazing what they consider to be censorship. Facebook shutting down a post is censorship. Twitter kicking someone off their platform is censorship. It is all a slippery slope.
Except slippery slopes are a red herring. It is something conservatives are extremely consistent about. Regulation of any right is somehow a slippery slope to tyranny. Speech can’t be regulated. Gun ownership can’t be regulated. It’s the same argument.
Except they can be regulated and SCOTUS decisions consistently back this up. The question is what responsibility media outlets have. Congress shall make no laws. That doesn’t mean that private entities can’t limit what it allows. Businesses are free to govern their employees. People are free to suffer blowback from their speech. There’s no slippery slope here.
Speaking of censorship or whatever, there was a very good article between this post and El Jefe’s [now] below a short time ago that just disappeared?
1It was by Elizabeth Moon entitled [aprx] ‘The Guns of August’.
I read it on the TWMDBS homepage, was thinking of commenting, refreshed the homepage, and it was gone? I didn’t see anything objectionable about it, perhaps pulled for an edit?
WTF? Hoping that it reappears…
Republicans also define “censorship” as anyone objecting to anything Republicans say. If Fox News declines to, say, cover a speech by Joe Biden – Republicans defend this as “freedom of speech.”
As always, Republicans feel that rights are only for the Right.
2It is necessary to understand the conservative, which is to say the peasant, notion of what “the law” is and how it works. The law is not the language on the statue book. The law is what people weaponize against the people they are feuding with. The law is what privileged people are tacitly exempt from (if the exemption were made explicit, its emotional reward would be less).
So the peasant reading of the text that you cite also emphasizes the initial clause, “Congress shall make no law…”, but reads it through the perspective that nothing Congress does matters, because what the law actually says does not matter, and anyone who can read is a traitor anyhow. What matters is the oral tradition of the the intent of the law, which is always meta, and what the enforcers do, which is always purely arbitrary.
3Concerning the comment that “the regulation of any right is a slippery slope to tyranny (in the view of conservative repugnanticans)- the definition of tyranny is the arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority; the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler. Does that remind anyone besides me of an ex president? Hint, he was an orange slob who claimed he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and nothing would happen to him. And the repugnantican party continues to hold him up as their leader. That tells you everything you need to know about that party.
4And in the mind of current repugnanticans, the Jan 6 insurrection was just people peaceably assembling. Can’t wait to see who kevin mcCarthy picks for the bipartisan commission so that the process becomes a shit show.
I once spent a great deal of time teaching argumentation and reasoning for various purposes.
So, to nitpick a bit, I’d suggest concern about “censorship” isn’t a slippery slope, at all. Instead, it is a fallacy of false analogy, saying one thing is like another when there are crucial differences. The language is inexact — it accepts the general appreciation of free expression without considering the crucial difference of two very different actors.
And, in an effort to be fair, Republicans are not the only ones using this sort of reasoning. Find the coverage of the American Booksellers Association and its handling of a book, Abigail Shrier’s “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.” The ABA included it in a “white box,” a monthly distribution of books, promotional materials, and information that may be of interest to its independent booksellers. They were immediately criticized for featuring an “anti-trans” book, and they immediately reacted by apologizing and announcing sets to avoid such a provocation in the future. You won’t have to look far to find a left-leaning critic saying the ABA’s reversal and its apology was a censorship of the book, a violation of the free speech of the author.
5Manipulative conservatives have used this tactic for decades. I saw it in the ’70’s, and it has never gone away. Everything that they don’t like or that works against them will result in a worst-case scenario, and anything they like can only have a best-case outcome. It’s all propaganda and utterly egocentric thinking.
6How about the requirement to have a vaccination? Smallpox vaccinations were required by law until 1949, when it was considered conquered and the law repealed. The GOP is merely against everything that would help the average person. If voters don’t get off their rears and start supporting Dem. candidates and VOTING, get ready for a dark ages in the USA.
7This is My opinion and I speak for no one else.
Logical fallacies, slippery slopes, massively insulting accusations of repulsive behaviors like supporting terrorists, calling us communists for wanting to make sure folks down on their luck don’t end up dead in a dumpster. Calling us big meanies for wanting to make poor misunderstood billionaires pay pennies on the dollar in taxes compared to the folks who clean their toilets.
We can debate the mechanisms. We can identify the tactics. We can show how they accuse us of doing the exact same shit they do to us.
Or we can stop playing defense.
It might not seem like it to most folks, but Pres. Biden calling out f**king trump in his speech was significant.
8Representative Jasmine Crockett has called Texas Repugnantcans terrorists. And in a couple sentences totally justified it. Terrorizing vulnerable voters with partisan poll watchers. Coincidentally right around the same time any yahoo can tote a gun around.
“Like the wild west”