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Quotes / Slippery Slope Fallacy

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"I pointed out, well, once you make it 10, then why would you draw the line at 10? What's wrong with nine? Or 11? And the problem is once you draw that limit — it's kind of like marriage when you say it's not a man and a woman anymore, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody has a love for an animal?"
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) speaking on gun magazine control

"Anytime someone asks, 'Where does it stop?' The answer is always, 'Fucking somewhere!' You might let your kid have Twizzlers, but not inject black-tar heroin. You don't just go, 'Well, after the Twizzlers, where does it stop?'"
John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, on removing Confederacy monuments.

"Gah! This slippery slope, how I hate it! People speak its vulgar name day and night, with no hint of irony, as though it were not a formal logical fallacy. Poison thinking! The lie of the slope is devious, though. Because in truth, the slope does exist. Rather, the lie of the slope is the implication that we have ever been or could ever be on level ground. Preposterous! By the time we come into knowledge of ourselves and our place in the world, we have already committed ourselves to a multitude of often contradictory beliefs, with each action sending us careening towards a new and unfavorable extreme. Every precedent and its opposing precedents have already been set. We were born on this slope, and we will die on this slope. It spreads infinitely in all directions, and where we choose to scramble to on its face is the task of our lives."
Professor Gurwara, Strong Female Protagonist

"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."
Thomas De Quincey, providing a humorous inversion to this trope

"I say first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon, then beer from a bottle, and the next thing you know, your son is playing for money in a pitch-black suit and listenin' to some big outta town jasper, hearin' him tell about horse race gamblin'."
Mr. Hill, The Music Man

Mirror Chekov: "What do you feel about giving prisoners in the ship's brig more than one meal a day?"
Mirror Sulu: "I'm against it. If they are given more food per day, then next they'll want weekends off, and then conjugal visits with their wives. No, I'm against it."
Mirror Chekov: "But the doctor said they're having health issues because they're only eating once a day. It doesn't seem unreasonable to give them two meals a day, does it?"
Mirror Chekov: "It is unreasonable — if we give prisoners two meals a day this week, then next week, they're gonna ask for even more privileges, and the week after that, they'll be running the ship! No, they are prisoners and they only get one meal a day!"
[...]
Mirror Spock: "The slippery slope fallacy occurs when a party asserts that a relatively small first step will undoubtedly lead to a chain of related events, culminating in some significant, usually negative, effect."
Star Trek Logical Thinking, "Slippery Slope Fallacy"

"No, a slippery slope is a fallacy asserting that one inconsequential event will trigger a chain of events that will ultimately result in disaster."

"'Just this once' is once too much, 'cause once they've 'once'd, they'll want to 'once' once more."
Mrs. Pennywise, Urinetown

"Now, that's a little bitty shelf and a great big vase here. What'd probably happen is the vase would probably tip over and... the vase would probably break! And ol' buddy Bert would probably say, 'Ernie, you broke my favourite vase!' And then... and then he'd probably throw me out of the house! And it'd probably be cold outside... and windy... and I'd be shivering... and it'd just be terrible!"
Ernie, Sesame Street

"If I get away with using this toilet, who's to say where or when it will stop? I could be taking the first step towards a life of crime. Today the handicapped toilets — tomorrow I'll be leaving my bike in spaces reserved for handicapped drivers and walking up disabled access ramps instead of taking the stairs."
Andy, Andy Griffiths' Just Series, "Just Stupid", "Busting"

Telly: "Me? Try [a cheese and lettuce sandwich]?"
Old Man: "Well, yeah, what's the worst that could happen?"
Telly: "Uh... uh... I don't know, but well, suppose I bite into it and I don't like the taste? And I scrunch my face all up and lean back in my stool, and then I might fall off the stool. And then I might roll out into the street, where I might bump into the newsstand, which might fall over and crash into Lexine, who's jumping by on her pogo stick! And then she might go flying off and land in Oscar's can! Hmph!"
Old Man: "Let me get this straight: you think that if you put lettuce on a cheese sandwich, some kid named Lexine's gonna fly off her pogo stick?"
Telly: "Yes!"

"Gee, I just started to think: right about this time every day, old Herbert Birdsfoot takes a bath. I bet he's right there now, in his nice warm tubby, soaking his ears, y'know. And then there's gonna be this knock on the door, and he's gonna come to the door, and then I'm gonna ask to borrow his vacuum cleaner, and he's gonna be real mad that I made him get out of his nice warm tubby and come to the door all wet and sudsy. He'll probably even catch a cold! Wow, yeah! And you know what? He might not even loan me his vacuum cleaner! Y'know, a person who makes him come, y'know, out of his nice warm tubby and catch a cold! Wow! He probably, you know what? I-I bet he'd think that I probably wouldn't even return his vacuum cleaner to him. But I would! Course I would, but he would think I wouldn't. Matter of fact, he probably— he'd probably go around telling all my friends not to loan me anything! He'd probably tell them that I wouldn't return it, y'know? He'd probably say how unreliable I am, y'know? And then these people'd stop loaning me anything! These people would stop loaning me things, and, matter of fact, they probably wouldn't even speak to me anymore!"
Ernie, Sesame Street

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