a slippery slope isn’t just an observable and predictable phenomenon, given enough time to measure. It is also an intentional sociopolitical technique, otherwise known as boiling the frog.
I remember when they first passed seat-belt laws in my state. I was very young, so even though there are hundreds of examples I could cite from my life, this was the one that became the formidable lesson. At first they said it was only the driver who had to wear it, and that you couldn’t be pulled over for it. Opponents and cynics pointed out that this is just the start. Someday it will be all passengers, and they will pass new laws to permit law enforcement to target it specifically. This may not be the best example, as most people agree with the restraints as a public safety issue, but given much time (well over a decade in fact) all those things they said came true.
I can also remember when people were offering warnings about Europeans falling for the notion that you need a single currency and to remove trade barriers, because it will eventually lead to the loss of sovereignty. The proponents, of course, scoffed and even chaffed. But they knew. We all know that at the deeper levels anyway, beyond the useful idiots, they knew.
“This may not be the best example, as most people agree with the restraints as a public safety issue”
I agree, it’s not a good example. I was an adult at the time and remember it well when you didn’t have to have seat belts. Driving is a privilege not a right and when you are belted in, not only yourself and passengers are better able to survive a crash but you are better able to control a car if you are belted in.
Actually it’s the perfect example as the second statement shows. When a law is passed infringing upon freedom eventually the public will come to justify it by the type of reasoning expressed above. There’s always an excuse given for loss of freedom such as “it’s a privilege”, “you can better control the car”, my insurance rates will go up, it’s for the children, etc. None of them are valid reasons for government interference in something that poses no threat of harm to anyone else.