Swiss back further restrictions on tobacco advertising

Re:Swiss back further restrictions on tobacco advertising by pessimizer on Sunday February 13, 2022 @02:11PM (#30324586)

"Not terribly interesting" often seems to me to mean that an argument is so direct and clear that there's really no reason to argue about it, i.e. one has already accepted as a principle that the argument must be dismissed in order to continue doing things that we deem necessary.

I don't think cigarette advertising is worse than either cigarette selling or cigarette smoking. Under the rubric of "this is currently a bad thing, lets address it now" there's actually no escaping a slippery slope.

And "We cannot ban anything because someone people might eventually ban the wrong thing" is a strawman. The people doing the banning will think it's the right thing.

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Re:Swiss back further restrictions on tobacco advertising by kelseyfrog on Sunday February 13, 2022 @02:53PM (#30324980)

It's just that a slippery slope can be constructed for any problem. The ability to universally construct a slippery slope results in absurd conclusions. Either no changes can be effected(a universal maintenance of the status quo), or slippery slopes are an invalid method at making conclusions. That's why they are categorically uninteresting.

I'll use this conversation as an example to demonstrate the absurdity. If you accept someone's argument on one topic then you may find yourself agreeing with other things they say including some terrible conclusions. Therefore, it's better to never accept anyone's argument. There are much better ways to discern whether to accept or reject an argument.

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