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TimS comments on Schelling fences on slippery slopes - Less Wrong
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Good point, but still: does anyone know of any slippery slope [ETA: by which I mean a cascade of self-reinforcing changes in laws or social norms] that most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad? I ask because there are various theoretical reasons why one should almost never expect slippery slopes to have good consequences, but if empirically that's not the case then I need to revise my sociological and historiographical models.
(ETA2: My bad, I confused levels of abstraction; I agree with the criticisms that such an analysis is unfeasible even if possible.)
Aren't you smuggling in the conclusion? Incremental change that builds on previous changes is generally called a "slippery slope" only when the consequences are undesired. Is the gradual increase in homosexual rights good? Then it won't be called a slippery slope.
More generally, there aren't many changes that "most everyone can agree was clearly not-bad." If everyone thought it would be a good idea, society wouldn't have been doing things some other way.