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Substack Versus the Slippery Slope

Substack is once again under fire for taking free speech too far.

Bryan Caplan

Bet On It (substack)

January 8, 2024

Viewpoint Detected:

Strong Right

Fallacies Detected:

Slippery Slope, Straw Man, False Dilemma, Red Herring, Ad Hominem, Biased Language, Appeal to Emotion, Hasty Generalization

credAIble Evaluation:

This article demonstrates a strong right-leaning bias, particularly in its defense of Substack's free speech policies and criticism of what it terms as "woke" culture. The Slippery Slope fallacy is heavily used, suggesting that any censorship, even of hate speech, will inevitably lead to excessive and unreasonable censorship of more moderate voices. A Straw Man fallacy is present in the oversimplification and misrepresentation of the arguments for content moderation, which are then easily dismissed. Ad Hominem attacks are directed towards groups labeled as "woke," criticizing them in a manner that sidesteps the substantive argument about content moderation. The False Dilemma fallacy arises from presenting the situation as a binary choice between complete free speech and oppressive censorship, without acknowledging potential middle-ground approaches. Biased Language is evident throughout the article, using terms like "Orwellian" and "madly censorious" to describe those advocating for content moderation, which colors the argument with a clear ideological stance. The focus on defending absolute free speech and denouncing any form of content moderation, using strong right-leaning language and logical fallacies, highlights the article's strong right bias.

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