“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.