Dictates of the Right
The far right is as dangerous as the far left.
In the case of the morning after pill, there are some voices on the far right that would say that even the possibility that the medication aborts an embryo after fertilization means that the medication should be banned and the producers of the medication should be summarily executed as baby killers. Utah legislators would probably hold such an opinion.
Fortunately, the far right tends to be small and usually ignorted. The reactionary right really only gets a toehold in discourse when there is something to react against.
In the case of Plan B, we have a medication that can substantially decrease unwanted pregnancies. Rather than arguing what we can do with this medication, the far left has taken the low row and intentionally undermined the debate by trying to redefine conception as beginning at implantation.
The current insistence on the left that we say conception occurs at implantation ends up giving rise and credibility to the far right. The attempt to manipulate the debate at the subliminal drives people from talking about the benefits and dangers of the medication and into a shouting match about the definition of terms.
Manipulating the debate destroys the middle. When you no longer have a middle, you are left with either a dictatorship of the left or right. In most cases you see a violent thrashing between left and right.
It seems to me that the middle has to protect the terminology. The danger, of course, is that an excessive argument for preserving terminology can end up feeding the right.
When the left wins, we lose our ability to make rational choices because the left destroys the ability to engage in discourse. When the right wins, we lose our choice to their dictates.
In the case of the morning after pill, there are some voices on the far right that would say that even the possibility that the medication aborts an embryo after fertilization means that the medication should be banned and the producers of the medication should be summarily executed as baby killers. Utah legislators would probably hold such an opinion.
Fortunately, the far right tends to be small and usually ignorted. The reactionary right really only gets a toehold in discourse when there is something to react against.
In the case of Plan B, we have a medication that can substantially decrease unwanted pregnancies. Rather than arguing what we can do with this medication, the far left has taken the low row and intentionally undermined the debate by trying to redefine conception as beginning at implantation.
The current insistence on the left that we say conception occurs at implantation ends up giving rise and credibility to the far right. The attempt to manipulate the debate at the subliminal drives people from talking about the benefits and dangers of the medication and into a shouting match about the definition of terms.
Manipulating the debate destroys the middle. When you no longer have a middle, you are left with either a dictatorship of the left or right. In most cases you see a violent thrashing between left and right.
It seems to me that the middle has to protect the terminology. The danger, of course, is that an excessive argument for preserving terminology can end up feeding the right.
When the left wins, we lose our ability to make rational choices because the left destroys the ability to engage in discourse. When the right wins, we lose our choice to their dictates.
posted by y-intercept at 10:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home