after years of being absent from youtube leafy came back and within months he was
banned from the website many people are speculating that his ban
was from his multiple videos on pokeman and although leafy was memeing on ethan
klein from h3h3 productions ethan may have been right that leafy
wouldn't last on the platform the way it currently is
there's a lot of unproven speculation that ethan or pokeman
had something to do with his ban but that's not what we're going to be
discussing in this video leafy's band has started a debate within
the youtube commentary community and many people are divided on one side
you have commentary channels like scarce and others
saying that this is bad for all creators on the other side
leon lush another big commentary channel released a video taking the opposing
viewpoint in scarce's tweet he said the following
even if you weren't a fan of his videos leafy's termination is very very
concerning leafy being terminated now means
any of us could be next another commentary creator named optimus
had a similar argument that said not sure how much longer i'll be on youtube
gotta take the time to make sure you're enjoying it as it happens and trust me
i'm doing my best you see situations like leafy and realize
how much the commentary community has been messed with
all year it won't be long folks but in leon lush's video he argued that
he doesn't believe this is the case and as a commentary channel himself he
has quite a bit of skin in the game you see john scarce put up a john scarce
put up a tweet hold on a second even if he weren't a fan of his videos
leafy's termination is very very very concerning leafy being terminated
now means any of us could be next that seems a little bit fear-mongering
john don't you think like you can still make commentary on things
on youtube you can still criticize things on youtube
maybe just don't make like six videos in a week
about the same chick talking about her looks like a bunch
you know i'm saying like i'm not trying to defend pokeman i don't know her
personally i don't really even know the situation that well i'm sure
she's she made an apology video recently for handling some situations poorly
and certainly i am fully fully uh in support of criticism and being
able to talk about other people on the internet because that's what i do for my
living but i do think there is a point there is
a right way and a wrong way to go about it
in our last video we debunked q anon covet conspiracies
so i thought that right now would be the perfect time to expand
upon the slippery slope logical fallacy although when we typically hear the word
argument we think of two people bickering at one another
but the reality is is that arguments are just two sides with opposing views
each argument has the potential to persuade audiences so it's important
that we are aware of what separates a good from a bad
argument oftentimes logical fallacies are used to
try and strengthen an argument but when you put them under the
microscope it doesn't actually prove a person's point
those in q anon use the slippery slope fallacy all the time
they regularly argue that we shouldn't have to wear masks
as we discussed in the previous video they argue
that this is a means of control they say that mandating that we wear masks can
lead to more government control they'd have you believe that wearing the
mask today to slow down a global pandemic
will lead to a secret service member moving into your house and telling you
what you can and can't watch on tv conservatives
often use the slippery slope logical fallacy when it comes to debates
around gun rights and abortion laws so although the scarce and leon debate may
just seem like silly internet drama about leafy
this is a time for us to sharpen our critical thinking skills because logical
fallacies can pop up anywhere in this video we're going to
start by dissecting the slippery slope logical fallacy and learn why it's not a
valid tool for critical thinkers in a debate then
we're going to discuss how to counter the slippery slope
logical fallacy in an argument as well as ways to discuss the slippery
slope without being irrational but before we get
started if you're new to the rewired soul
make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell here we practice
critical thinking and skepticism to improve our emotional intelligence
and overall well-being
this specific fallacy builds off the idea of cause and effect
if a then b many fallacies are hard to spot
because they have a slight essence of a logical argument
we can point to many examples of cause and effect for example
granted there are no flaws with the machinery if i flip this light switch
then the light will turn on and if i turn this doorknob
then the door will open but the slippery slope logical fallacy
takes this to an extreme with no provable evidence
the slippery slope argument says if a then b and if b then c and if
c then z this is the argument of an alarmist
and the goal is to incite the powerful emotion of fear into those
who hear the argument due to the fact that the argument is on a shaky
foundation the person hopes that they'll persuade
people by giving them a dose of fear in the context of a leafy ban commentary
channels like scarce are saying that if leafy can get banned
then no commentary channel is safe and if no commentary channel is safe
then this impedes on our freedom of speech and the freedom of press
and if no commentary channels are safe then the platform will turn into nothing
but family vlogs prank channels and slime challenges leon
lush did a good job backing his argument by pointing out the updated terms of
services by youtube and making it very clear that
they're going to draw some lines there youtube's anti-harassment policy
like got beefed up beefed up last year and and i quote
the policy now bans targeted harassment campaigns the company told me that
harassment on youtube often doesn't come down to a single insult and said it's a
sustained effort over many videos under the new policy youtube will now
take a more holistic view of what a creator is saying on the channel even if
individual videos don't necessarily cross the line
if they still contribute to the persecution of another person or creator
they're eligible for removal so you could argue the semantics over what
leafy said in his videos was he really saying things that were harassing
i haven't watched probably over 90 of it i popped in on one of them
uh i think he does talk about her looks in one of them though but even if he's
like you know what i'm saying this this
policy right here is grounds for removal because there's no question that leafy
making five or six videos on her caused her to get harassed
and again don't forget that leon lush is a commentary channel
and this is his primary source of income leon is a husband and a father
so if he felt that scarce's argument held any weight
he'd definitely speak up the premise of this argument
is that we need freedom of the press to keep those in power accountable
but they have no evidence that leafy's ban could take us down
this path if you remember from our conversation about conservative morals
they often rely on this logic because their traditional list
and believe that the 200 year old constitution
was never meant to be changed but this is absurd because written at the same
time was the federalist papers which
discussed how the constitution will need to be updated over time
neglecting the federalist papers conservatives use the slippery slope
fallacy to argue against common sense gun laws and abortion rights
following the slippery slope fallacy formula of if a
then b and if b then z conservatives will argue that
any common sense gun laws will lead to abolishing gun rights as a whole
they argue that universal background checks and not selling guns to people
with a history of violence will then lead to nobody in the country
being allowed to own a gun although liberals will say that this is
not what they want conservatives use the slippery slope
logical fallacy to say that this is where it will lead
they do the same thing with abortion laws conservatives will try and have you
believe that a woman's right to choose will lead
to a culture where murder is tolerated even if you get a
pro-lifer to admit that a first-term fetus is nowhere near
human consciousness they'll say it's a slippery slope
pro-lifers will argue that if we allow abortion early on
then we'll eventually allow late-term abortions and if we allow
late-term abortions we might as well allow the murder of innocent toddlers
this is a ridiculous argument especially because many pro-lifers
are also fans of the military-industrial complex
which kills thousands of innocent children in other countries
but we don't have time to dive into that in this video
so if scarce and other commentary channels are going to use flawed
arguments by turning to the slippery slope fallacy
how do we combat it to have better
conversations
i personally don't know if leon lush took a speech in debate class
but he ran a master class on how to debunk the slippery slope logical
fallacy when someone presents you with a
slippery slope logical fallacy simply ask them to connect those dots
because the problem with this argument is that there's no evidence
that point b will lead to point z when you have a person attempt to make these
connections it begins to sound a little bit more
irrational sometimes in a one-on-one debate
you'll persuade your opponent to see the flaws in their argument
but not always but in a world where we're all on social media
the goal of your argument may be to persuade the audience
and not the person that you're debating this is why it's great that leon lush
took the time to put this in a video because he's
showing a massive audience the flaws in the slippery slope argument if i were
to coach someone in a debate against someone like scarce or optimist
i'd have them ask the opponent to present the evidence
that something like this could happen where all
commentary channels could get banned on the side of debunking this fallacy we
have plenty of evidence that this slope isn't nearly as slippery
as people want you to believe and we have plenty of examples too one
year ago the youtuber alfie days interviewed youtube ceo susan wojcicki
for his channel during his hour-long interview alfie
brought up the topic of bullying and harassment
susan then discussed how they're constantly having conversations
about what is legitimate criticism and what constitutes bullying and harassment
after this interview many people in the commentary community did exactly what
they're doing right now saying that they're all in danger yet
it's been a year and 99 of them still have channels a few months
later in december youtube updated its
anti-bullying and harassment policies not long after that idubbbz content cop
about leafy was taken down again the commentary
community turned into chicken little saying that the sky was falling but
again not much change for a majority of them
but it's been nine months since that happened and this is the first
major action we've seen youtube take in the realm of anti-bullying and
harassment now some of you may argue that this is
proof of the slippery slope but that's completely irrational all we
have is proof that youtube is enforcing a rule that
they implemented nine months ago just like when certain
businesses made mass mandatory and started asking people
to leave their establishments it was merely enforcement of a rule so when
someone is trying to use a slippery self-logical fallacy against you
ask them to lay out the line of reasoning and feel free to bring up the
fact that they're using this fallacy in some cases they may be able to prove
their point in a rational way maybe you assume it was the slippery
slope fallacy but they were just connecting a to b and
have evidence rather than taking b to z someone who i think does a good job
of this is kyle kalinski from secular talk
although kyle is one of the most progressive voices out there
he believes that conservatives deserve the right to free speech
when alex jones was banned from the platform kyle argued that this was bad
for everyone now some would say that kyle is using
the slippery slope logical fallacy but when we put his argument under the
microscope it holds up he explains how the only allegiance
social media companies have is to the almighty dollar kyle argues
that social media companies need to do a better job being
transparent when it comes to how certain conspiracy videos violate the
terms of service because liberals are a risk too for
example conservatives argue that there are many liberal conspiracy theorists
even though there's proof kyle is a liberal who has personally had videos
censored for simply reporting the news about
global wars because some call them conspiracies
even though there is evidence kyle's argument isn't that de-platforming alex
jones means that all commentary and news channels will be the
platform he argues that liberals shouldn't celebrate too much
thinking that they're invincible when it comes to this censorship
kyle avoids the slippery slope fallacy by giving evidence of a to b
without jumping to z personally i'm a huge believer in freedom of speech
i also believe that even though there are people like leafy
who aren't serving some greater moral good there are plenty of channels
trying to raise awareness while also poking fun
leon lush danny gonzalez jarvis johnson and
others are completely different than leafy some
have even said that leafy is no different than shows like last week
tonight or the daily show but this is a false
equivalent whereas these creators and show hosts
have a moral compass leafy doesn't mind just sitting back and
watching the world burn
all right everybody thank you once again for making it all the way through this
video essay i hope you enjoyed it i thought this was
going to be a good way to tie in what we talked about in the last video about the
q and on uh covid conspiracies and speaking of
some like logical fallacies especially the slippery slope that is
used so much if you want leave a comment down below of like
an example of a slippery slope that you've heard where you're like
i don't see it getting that bad but anyways as
always i have linked some books down in the description i
always link books i love me some books so there's some books in there about
like uh logical fallacies about uh arguments you know like i
i i really open up my eyes like what an argument is like
in more of the context of like a debate you know and it helps me
have better conversations and kind of see the other side and all those things
before i just like go out all willy-nilly because like i said like
a lot of the stuff that we're doing and like trying to practice with critical
thinking is to improve our own emotional
intelligence because we when we get heated
or passionate about something like our rationality just
flies out the window you know what i mean so anyways if you want check out
some of the books down below anyways that's all i got for
this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new
make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge huge thank
you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon
you are all amazing and a huge thank you to everybody else who supports this
channel by buying rewired soul merch or uh my books from
the rewired soul.com and as i was recording the outro why it came over and
started roping up on my legs so ryan says bye too
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