Related Ideas

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• Logical slopes. There is a logical slope when the justification offered for a narrow restriction on speech could also be used to justify much broader restrictions. This does not necessarily indicate any intent to deceive on the part of the person advocating the narrow restriction.
  
  
• Political slopes. There is a political slope when the adoption of a particular restriction on speech provides a precedent that makes it politically easier for some party to add another restriction. The new restriction may or may not be justified by the arguments that justified the precedent.
  
  

Both types of slopes are relevant to arguments about restrictions on speech, but they are very different. The logical slope is a problem of philosophical or legal principle. To point out the danger of a logical slope is not necessarily to claim that anything will happen. To point out a political slope is in part to claim that we are likely to move down it and adopt further restrictions.