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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025

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or else they have an accountability problem.

Only if you see pregnancy as a punishment for the crime of having sex they're "unfairly" trying to avoid.

or else they have an accountability problem.

Only if you see pregnancy as a punishment for the crime of having sex they're "unfairly" trying to avoid.

No, I see it as an obvious direct consequence of their decisions. You're the one loading this completely-unobjectionable fact with emotional valence.

Crying that the natural consequence of one's decision is 'punishment' is childlike. And womanlike, I guess. As I said, they seem to have a problem with accountability.

ETA: Also, watch your quotation marks. I don't appreciate you putting words in my mouth.

the natural consequence of one's decision

"But actually there's a simple technological solution or medical treatment that negates the negative consequences."

And then people are mad as though this person is dodging the correct cosmic punishment for their sins rather than suffering as they deserve. As thought a universal justice with built in punishments for the wicked is being subverted by technological and medication advances.

Your very best and most charitable framing of your opponents is that they are crying in a womanlike manner?

Within this context, no one is attempting to 'punish' people for sexual activities that do not result in the creation of human lives. However, when people choose to engage in the specific versions of those activities which may result in the creation of human lives, our perspective is that they have certain obligations to the resulting human lives and should be held accountable.

And then people are mad as though this person is dodging the correct cosmic punishment for their sins rather than suffering as they deserve. As thought a universal justice with built in punishments for the wicked is being subverted by technological and medication advances.

Frankly your post belies an unhinged, pathological antipathy toward people who believe in human purpose and absolute morality, but I'm not getting much else from it.

Your very best and most charitable framing of your opponents is that they are crying in a womanlike manner?

I think dodging accountability is a childlike and feminine trait, yes.

No, I see it as an obvious direct consequence of their decisions. You're the one loading this completely-unobjectionable fact with emotional valence.

It's not a fact - abortion can avoid it, just as technology has allowed us to avoid many "obvious direct consequences" in the past 300 years. Yet only this one you take issue with. I wonder why.

Yet only this one you take issue with.

You're not arguing in good faith here, having repeatedly attributed stances to me which I did not take and do not hold.

I wonder why.

Say what you mean, coward. Maybe then we can have a real conversation.

I’m not thrilled about how AT is putting words in your mouth, but this sort of callout helps approximately never.

Be polite or refrain from responding at all. No one will think less of you for it.

abortion can avoid it

If I hit a hobo while driving drunk I can avoid the consequences of my actions by finishing him off with a brick to the head and hiding his body in the woods. Murder lets you get away from the consequences of all sorts of things, provided you can hide the evidence well enough. Fortunately for women, we've decided to make avoiding accountability for their decisions via murder legal in the case of pregnancy, and some segments of society even actively celebrate their right to murder to avoid accountability!

It's still begging the question.

The question here, really, is whether anti-abortionists are coming from a place of A) wishing punishment upon women for enjoying sex or B) concern for the resulting human lives.

Within this context the question of whether nascent humans should count as humans isn't being begged. It's established that this is the background belief of (almost all) anti-abortionists, which is what matters here.

Claiming that anti-abortionists just want to punish women is a weird sort of disbelief in the foreigner, I think. Indeed it seems to beg the question of whether we really care about the nascent lives involved, and it comes down on the side of 'no'.