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The way I see it, the point that the conservatives can rub in my face, i.e. the slippery slope in this situation, is that these coalitions aren't arbitrary. It's that Issue 1 necessarily implies something similar to Coalition A, because of the principles encoded into Issue 1. This doesn't necessarily imply that Issue 2 will causally follow, but it does imply that some Coalition similar to Coalition A that wants Issue 2 (more accurately, Issue X, since we can't determine beforehand that it will be Issue 2 specifically) will gain greater credibility and more ability to get that Issue 2 implemented.
That is, the conservatives who were telling me, "Sure, those boats could move to different sides of the harbor. But they won't. And here's why," can rub it into my face. It's probably not much of a consolation, but I suppose they can at least enjoy having company in their misery.
My point though is there is evidence that they can. Arguably the whole Republican movement has been moved towards a more populist, more protectionist, more working class focused coalition, with all that entails. Some of the very people who might be rubbing your nose in it, may well have themselves moored their boats elsewhere in the last decade. In the UK, the Trans faction does appear to have been set somewhat adrift from the major parties with Labour distancing themselves. Pretty much the Scottish national party is the biggest supporter, and by all indications they may be about to take a drubbing from Labour.
If Coalition A wants something you don't like then it is of course reasonable to oppose them, and it is then likely that whatever positions they choose next you probably also won't be too happy with. Coalitions aren't random generally. But that still isn't a slippery slope argument, it's just why you don't like that coalition in the first place.
If you are a hardcore leftist then you are unlikely to like both deregulation of industry and restriction of abortion rights and union busting activities. And all of those are likely to be clustered around the party you do not like. But it doesn't make sense to say that is a slippery slope. Otherwise every policy you dislike is the beginning of a slippery slope to some other policy you don't like.
Rhetorically it's fine. I am sure if I were employed as a political consultant with the Republicans I would absolutely be telling them to hammer their base with slippery slope arguments about gay marriage (well maybe not this year, the abortion issue is looking like a hot potato, so I am not sure they want to put gay marriage into the mix in an election year). But that doesn't mean it is is a very rigorous argument.
I don't disagree with this; they could, and they could have. It's just that they really didn't, in contrast to my own predictions at the time and in concordance with the predictions of my ideological enemies. This, in itself, vindicates the slippery slope argument. Just because a slope is slippery doesn't mean someone has to slip on it; it's just that, in this case, people did slip on it in very much the same way that the people who called the slope slippery had predicted.
I think i'd disagree. A slippery slope argument implies B must be caused by A. If it weren't its just a slope, not a slippery slope.
And i would say the evidence suggests any given trans issue is not directly caused by gay marriage.
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