Is Slippery Slope a Logical Fallacy in Same Sex Marriage?

Owners of this Pizza Business Received Death Threats for Refusing to Service a Gay Wedding

The ABC recently wrote a post arguing that the entire NO campaign on same sex marriage is based on a series of logical fallacies, chief among them being the ‘slippery slope’. To better understand logical fallacies see my teachingmaterials on that topic.
 

A ‘slippery slope’ fallacy is the argument against change on the basis that the change will cause all sorts of disasters when there is no reason why that would necessarily occur. 

This can be a logical fallacy. It is also the case that history is littered with examples of slopes that were indeed slippery and disastrous consequences that did follow from bad decisions. 

To take an extreme example for the purposes of illustration consider the rise of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s. The Nazis were a tiny fringe party much like the gay liberation movement was in the 1950’s. You would have been considered crazy if you had suggested that Rosenberg and his followers would start another world war. The very significant popular support they received was due to their success at tackling unemployment, restoring national dignity, and asserting German interests in international affairs. 

Very few people foresaw that within a few years Hitler would have declared war on both the British Empire and the Soviets and the United States, or that cattle cars would be carrying Jews to gas chambers, or that the USAF would be dropping millions of tonnes of explosives on everyone’s heads. It was the ‘slippery slopers’ such as Ps Bonhoeffer, the Edelweiss and the later and better known WhiteRose who warned about anti-semitism, militarism, the reduction of civil liberties, and the takeover of the church and civil institutions by official State ideology. The crazy thing is that anyone who really took the time could have discerned what was coming as Churchill did. Churchill was widely reviled for stating the obvious at the time.

We are now witnessing concerted attempts to impose GLBTI ideology (and its fellow travellers) as formal State ideology with an ipso facto reduction in civil liberties and the takeover of the church and civil institutions from universities, to the AMA, to the professions of psychiatry and social work; and the open persecution of anyone who dissents. We are seeing concerted attempts to indoctrinate children into queer gender theory, to deny parental rights to object, to dismantle traditional social mores, and to contain, isolate and eradicate societal groups and organisations that stand in the way. 

This is not idle speculation about what ‘could happen’. It is what is happening.

In that context to suggest that SSM is just an isolated and minor change to the law is ridiculous. It is part of a long term, calculated, incremental strategy. That is why the YES lobby are so vicious and so panicked whenever anyone talks about the slippery slope because they know the slippery slope is precisely where they want to herd society; but the sheep must be herded quickly before they realise. 

It’s the job of the NO team to warn them.