The Same People Calling Slippery Slope Arguments A Fallacy Are Now Using Slippery Slope To Describe The Hobby Lobby Ruling
Logic is not our generation's strong suit. Most University students walk around holding many inconsistent and illogical beliefs on a regular basis. For example, many students believe "There is no Truth" or some variation (no absolutes, it's all relative), ignoring the fact they have just made a truth claim they believe is True. They will believe that everyone should be tolerant except against intolerant people. I have had people look me in the eye and tell me they don't really know if 2+2=4 or not. If I point out the logical errors of their ways, that they have broken the law of non-contradiction and inherently contradicted themselves, they simply point out that logic is all a social construct and language is inherently meaningless anyway. Nevermind that statement must be meaningful to be true. It is at this point I feel like ripping my hair out and ought to leave the conversation, although I must be masochistic because I often stay for more. "Surely they can't be this illogical!" I think. Oh how wrong I am. Thank you post-modernism and sociology.
Totally A Fallacy
Of course, it is these same people, these same exact students, who deny the application of basic logic onto their arguments, who love to use what they call the "slippery slope fallacy." Oh I know you've heard of it.
The Law is reason free from passion.
- Aristotle
I was very disturbed by the aftermath of the Hobby Lobby ruling yesterday, both from my friends on social media, from bloggers online, and from politicians with real power and influence. After I read the case and wrote a basic outline, I kept hearing people, over and over again, say things that simply were not true. There was a lot of passionate rhetoric that had no substance in reality. At best, this response is proof that our political discourse has truly devolved into ignorant soundbites that get the most clicks and votes, where truth is an afterthought. At worst, politicians and pundits are deliberately deceiving people to rile up your base and smear political opponents. It's probably a little bit of both. Remember the narrative pushed by the left: the Republican war on women. It's not about Truth, it's about the narrative that helps re-election.
I picked out a few of the deceptive untrue or irrelevent memes I kept hearing over and over again.
1. "[This decision] would deny legions of women who do not hold their employers’ beliefs access to contraceptive coverage that the ACA would otherwise secure."
My legal mind really enjoyed reading the Hobby Lobby case today. Here are 8 keys to understanding the ruling, it actually makes a ton of sense.
1. Hobby Lobby already provided 16 of the 20 contraceptives mandated by the Affordable Care Act. They only objected to IUDs and morning after pills that may prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, thereby violating their religious beliefs that life begins at conception and should be protected.
2. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was an act passed by a Democratic Congress in 1993 (and signed by Clinton) that reiterated religious protection of all "persons" by requiring that any law, even if applying to the general public, must not "substantially burden" one's religious convictions without being for a "compelling government interest" and using the "least restrictive means."
