Slippery slope
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The metaphor of a "slippery slope" conjures up images of the danger of coming too close to the edge of a cliff. One step in itself may not cause you any harm, as it merely brings you down the slope a bit. But if you take enough steps toward the brink, you will reach a point where the slippery ground makes you lose your balance and tumble down over the precipice.
In rhetoric, a "slippery slope argument" is one which suggests that an innocent-seeming small action will lead inevitably to a disasterous result.
Examples:
- If we allow this increase in administrative fees, soon tuition will double!
- If we don't stop the terrorists in Iraq, they'll invade Maine next!
- If we send in 100,000 troops, the next thing you know we'll be in a quagmire like Vietnam!
- If we let gays get married, soon men will want to marry their kitchen appliances!
This sort of argument is generally recognized as a logical fallacy.