Saturday, October 13, 2012

He said/He heard/He heard at the VP Debate 2012

After the VP Debate, I was incensed at a conservative tweet that characterized Biden's answer on abortion as evidence that he was a "shitty Catholic." I stupidly got into a conversation with this conservative, which helped clarify the difference here. Spoiler: the difference is that this person assumes the worst of liberals.

When Biden explained that he acts according to his religious belief but he doesn't force those beliefs on others, I heard a rousing call for religious tolerance, which, you know, is kind of a big deal in America.

What this conservative heard was something more like "I support eugenic genocide." Now, before I get accused of casting his argument in an absurd light, let me note that this is actually what he said on his blog:
The modern abortion debate is simply early 1900s eugenics tied up with a pretty bow labeled “woman’s rights.” Eugencis are all about rating humanity on an arbitrary scale of usefullness, and then manipulating it accordingly. (cite
Yup, "woman's rights" is just the pretty bow we use to hide our thirst for baby blood and a desire to weed out undesirables, which, in this case, is all babies ever. So, how do we have a political discussion over this?

In slight defense of this terrible argument by this conservative, I will say that he pivots quickly from "this is a religious belief" to "this is the scientific and moral truth." Of course, that has no bearing on the VP debate where the abortion issue was starkly cast in a Catholic frame, so it's a terrible argument on his part. But it does help clarify his POV, which is that abortion is a moral issue removed from religion. I do wonder who told him that fetuses were the moral equivalent of living women, but that's another issue.

Also, for comic genius, I can't beat a Romney supporter claiming that Biden is just being political expedient in his answer. Seriously: I cannot beat that for unintentional comedy.

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure this is a common argument you've also been hearing, but I would wonder where he stands on the "right to life" of a child who is "living" with a disease but has not access to healthcare that would cure it. I have always maintained that "pro-choice" means choice. It doesn't mean pro-abortion.

    However, so many conservatives seem to be against universal healthcare. Something. That. Can. Save. Lives. Where is the moral truth in that?

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  2. Oh, well, if it comes to that, the pro-life party is also frequently the pro-war and pro-death penalty party. If you asked, I think it would come down to some notion of fetal innocence that doesn't extend past birth (or, currently, for Muslims and Arabs). In this worldview, an aborted baby is a sin; but a sick child is just a test sent from God, blah blah blah. I've lost the ability to coherently deal with some of these arguments from conservatives.

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  3. Yeah, that sounds about right. Just like a pregnancy from rape is a "gift from God". This is also why religion and politics shouldn't mix but do anyway.

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