Slip sliding away

Mr. Mangan,
I’d like to propose for banishment the phrase “down a slippery slope.”

Every time a progressive idea is put forward someone is bound to accuse the
proponent of “leading us down a slippery slope.” Is there any other
direction to descend a slope that is slippery?

My other, more recent, peeve is the newer “it is what it is.” Apparently this is used to excuse the speakers lack of insight to a given situation.
Sandy Novak

3 thoughts on “Slip sliding away

  1. One could attempt to go up a slippery slope. It tends to be more difficult though.

  2. This term is quite useful if in the form of ‘get on a ..’ It implies an inevitable slide down to an unpleasant and unforeseen bottom. The slide doesn’t have to be quick only certain. Look at legal abortion ‘Only legal for the few desperate cases, never as an easy option’.

    Compare ‘domino theory’, which was not as wrong or discredited as the 70s protestors made out it was. Look at Laos and Cambodia -both still communist- and Indonesia very narrowly avoided a communist coup in 1965.

  3. Once the first step is taken onto the “slipery slope” there is no way to go but down, hence the need to avoid “progessive ideas” that take that first step. Also, the domino theory isn’t just a theory, the dominoes do fall.