"The slippery slope" mischaracterized
One example of the mischaracterization that I talked about yesterday is Scott Adams* and his automatic mischaracterization of "the slippery slope".
He says there is no such thing as the slippery slope because "nothing continues forever". Things only continue until they meet enough resistance to stop them. Fair enough.
However, no one claims that the slippery slope has to continue forever; only that it has to continue far enough to hit certain intolerable levels. To become worse than the current situation. That something stops at that level because it has become intolerable isn't a solution. Not when it shouldn't have begun at all. Anti-gun legislation being a perfect example. No amount of "gun control" is ethical or OK. I am not worried that it will continue forever until guns are nonexistent and can't be re-invented, I'm angry that it went too far the first time some perverted power-mad anti-gun bigot imposed the first anti-weapons policy.
The slippery slope is real, even though it can't continue forever. It doesn't need to continue forever to be a real problem. It's vital to prevent the slippage from ever beginning.
*It's always interesting to me to see how an intelligent person mischaracterized things they don't like to try to make them seem wrong and to make it seem smart to be on the other side.
It's discouraging to notice how often it works.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
