this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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Wait until the cotton gin arrives, all the hand weavers will become jobless and no one will have experience anymore.
Wait until the printing press arrives, all the scribe monks will become jobless and no one will have experience anymore.
Wait until the computer arrives, people will become obsolete and no one will have experience anymore.
Wait until the steam engine, automobiles, planes, calculators, telephones, bla bla
"Slippery slope" arguments like these assume that once a technology introduces a specific risk, society lacks the agency to create counter-measures, new norms, or alternative uses for that technology.
History shows that when a "slope" appears, regulation steps in, technology evolves to solve the problem, or the culture shifts to reinterpret the tool.
In almost every case, the feared "bottom" of the slope was never reached because humans constantly built ramps or bridges along the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
Just because the baseline has shifted doesn't mean the change never happened , it just means we collectively haven't noticed as much as we could have, because the change sometimes happens at a timeframe larger than our collective memory.
That the "absolute worst" didn't come to pass doesn't negate the change that did occur.
There can and will be change, sure, but my point was that OP's "smalls steps towards something much worse" typically never happens because of the shift.
The "small steps" comment was me.
The shift described in the overton window is the shift in the perception of normal.
If 5 steps down are taken, then the window shifts, followed by another 5 downward steps, you're still down 10 steps from where you started.