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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31031 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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The latest abortion kerfuffle is decently well in the past now, and we've had a number of good threads on it in various places. I think it's a reasonable time to ask here:

Have you changed your personal opinion or political position on abortion access at all over the course of the last year or so? If so, to what, and based on what?

deleted

I share your frustrations. I would, however, suggest to you a third alternative when you say:

So, my options, as a person with my personal convictions, have grown to encompass 1) believing a majority of people even in red states are willing to tolerate and enable genocide, or 2) moderating my stance such that what is happening is no longer a genocide.

I think you need to consider option 3: a majority of people even in red states do not believe abortion to be tantamount to murder. That takes it from "these people are willing to callously slaughter innocents" to "these people don't believe that what they are doing is an act of murder". I think that it's both less of a blackpill, and more accurate, to believe the latter of people than the former.

That isn't to say I think those people are right - I don't. But a person who says "no, this isn't murder because the unborn child doesn't have moral rights" is someone I can accept much more easily than someone who blithely shrugs and says "yeah it's murdering a child, what of it?". As you indicate, it's far more distressing to think your countrymen believe the latter than the former.

I agree it's a fundamental value difference, I just think the distinction does matter. Like I said, for me personally it's a lot less horrific if someone thinks the unborn don't have rights than if they agree the unborn has rights but don't care if they hurt them. The first person is a person who I can accept is wrong but not necessarily a bad person. The second is just a bad person.

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