ELI5 Edition Discord Version Try the Political Version

Slippery Slope

The Fallacy

Asserting that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.

Why it's wrong

The problem with this reasoning is that it avoids engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts attention to extreme hypotheticals. Because no proof is presented to show that such extreme hypotheticals will in fact occur, this fallacy has the form of an appeal to emotion fallacy by leveraging fear.

Example

If we allow students to have five extra minutes for lunch, next they'll want an hour, then they'll stop coming to class altogether, and eventually the entire education system will collapse into anarchy.