Okay, I gotta vent, too.

Some vent about bad deals. I vent about bad grammar. So, if you don't wanna read this, just page back. You might find this obnoxious (or hitting too close to home)...

This is about the English language. Although, admittedly, it may be very difficult to learn and not as melodious as, say, French, it's ours to deal with. I personally love the language and I think that the more you appreciate it, the more you hate to see it butchered, slaughtered, or otherwise misused.

Now, in any public arena you will see this type of linguistic abuse, and obviously The Chip Board should not be expected to be an exception. I usually consider it nitpicking to correct spelling or grammatical mistakes. I personally only do it within the context of "debating" those who I consider to be nitwits.

Over the past year or so, however, a phrase has been insinuated into everyday conversation here on the Board and has been misused, I would estimate, about 99% of the time. This phrase joins such misuses as “literally” (instead of figuratively), and “anymore” (instead of “nowadays”)***, that I see here pretty often as well. The phrase is “SLIPPERY SLOPE.”

The last time I saw this phrase used correctly here, it was by Professor Travis Lewin, and I was so awestruck at the time that I publicly congratulated him right here for that correct usage. I don’t believe there has been one since.

The phrase “slippery slope” is an idiom that is part of the English language. A semi-literal use of the phrase is therefore confusing, and, unless you are discussing skiing or sledding (in which case the use would be entirely-literal), it is incorrect. The definition of the phrase “slippery slope”, and an example of a “slippery slope” are these (cut-and-pasted from a website):

Definition:

In order to show that a proposition P is unacceptable, a sequence of increasingly unacceptable events is shown to follow from P. A slippery slope is an illegitimate use of the "if-then" operator.

Examples:
(i) If we pass laws against fully-automatic weapons, then it won't be long before we pass laws on all weapons, and then we will begin to restrict other rights, and finally we will end up living in a communist state. Thus, we should not ban fully-automatic weapons.

(ii) You should never gamble. Once you start gambling you find it hard to stop. Soon you are spending all your money on gambling, and eventually you will turn to crime to support your earnings.

(iii) If I make an exception for you then I have to make an exception for everyone.

So, then, as you can see, a phrase such as “Be careful about starting to collect swizzle sticks… it’s a slippery slope,” is actually an egregious misuse of the language. Tell me what you would think if I misused other idioms…

“I really get a kick out of my karate instructor”
“You could get rid of that ugly wart if you keep your nose to the grindstone”
“Last night I fooled around with my girlfriend in the basement… yeah, that was a low blow”
“See what my son’s building out in the back yard… he’s making a mountain out of a mole hill”

Get the idea? As silly as those phrases sound, that’s exactly how silly the phrase “the slippery slope of collecting matchbooks” sounds to someone who loves the English language.

Like I do.

My apologies if I’ve offended anyone here, as that was not my intent. I’ve probably seen at least twenty people misuse the phrase, and I just wanted to point out the correct usage so maybe some of us will cringe less when we read the Board.

*** "I've literally been working my fingers to the bone"... Oh really? So, you have no skin left there?

*** "Lots of people collect chips any more"... Nope - ...nowadays is correct. "Any more" implies negative change from a past positive situation - "No one collects $100 chips any more"