{"id":3299,"date":"2019-08-28T12:49:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T16:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3299"},"modified":"2019-08-28T12:49:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T16:49:43","slug":"reckless-irresponsible-and-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3299","title":{"rendered":"Reckless, Irresponsible, and Dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look, I understand \nthe draw of the “slippery slope” argument. It is both sneaky and \neffective. Which is why as a parent I used it all the time when my kids \nwere younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dad, can we have a snack?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, you may not have a snack.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“First it’s a few \npeanut butter crackers, next it’s cake, then it’s deep fried Snickers \nbars. Soon your only focus is your next snack, you drop out of school, \nyour friends do too, and it all eventually leads right up to the decline\n and fall of Western civilization.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See how it works? \nYou blow right past the immediate request (which may in fact have some \nmerit) and bury it with speculation and hyperbole, pointing the debate \nto the worst possible (and not very likely) outcome. You avoid having to\n mention any real reason, which in the case of snacks was generally that\n I wasn’t hungry, so why should they be hungry? (Similar logic to why \nyour Mom would make you put on a jacket when she was cold.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently Gov. \nWhitmer indicated her willingness to consider providing undocumented \nimmigrants with special drivers licenses. The idea would be to would \nhelp Michigan’s economy by making it easier for them work and pay taxes.\n I don’t know. I’m certainly not sold on the idea. But then I was put \noff by some Republican legislators who went right to the slippery slope \nargument: “Provide special drivers licenses today and soon they will all\n be citizens and making us eat strange food and and it all eventually \nleads right up to the decline and fall of Western civilization.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are real \nreasons to oppose it. Let’s hear ’em. We all know how the slippery slope\n argument has been used time and time again to bypass sensible gun \nsafety measures, and that’s worked out just super terrific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look, I understand the draw of the “slippery slope” argument. It is both sneaky and effective. Which is why as a parent I used it all the time when my kids were younger. “Dad, can we have a snack?” “No, you may not have a snack.” “Why?” “First it’s a few peanut butter crackers, next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andrewheller-com","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}