Let's be very clear – I am pro-abortion. Not just "pro-choice", because increasing choices is a general drive throughout my appreciation of public policy. Pro-abortion. I'm in favor of it.

#RoevsWade
But I have heard absolutely zero reasonable, good, persuasive arguments from the pro-choice side. Not just in this current skirmish but for several decades.

The primary argument is to pretend the other side doesn't exist.
And that is simply stupid. It's willfully ignorant. It's not just hubris, it's standing on top of a mountain wearing copper armor holding a sword aloft and screaming "all gods are bastards." It is the rhetorical equivalent of committing suicide by cop.
Pro-abortion activists, and I use the term specifically, think the core of their argument is "nuh-uh" when pro-life activists say, "you are killing a human being."

Neither of them are correct. Neither. In their correctness is orthogonal to the question.
Firstly, we know that humans are composed of cells. At some point that "clump of cells" arbitrarily transforms from what it is into a functional human being. We know this because we see people get pregnant, cellular parasites, which then turn into babies. Everyone sees this.
(If you can make people deny the evidence of their eyes, you can make them commit atrocities.)
Any survey or interaction with actual citizens outside of the bubble of activism generally reveals and has revealed for decades that the average American is uncomfortable with abortion but largely accepts the usefulness and necessity up to somewhere between 3 to 5 months.
The specifics vary, the particular traits vary, but Americans are willing to accept a certain level of distaste and unpleasantness and something they consider generally morally undesirable, as part of a trade-off. That's hundreds of surveys and polls.
In particular, in minority communities, you see this dynamic being extremely pronounced. Black women in particular both think that abortion is distinctly unpleasant but an option that they wish to retain. For a lot of really good personal reasons.
Black men, as well. Hispanics, strongly, in general. This is rooted in a very broad, very deeply lodged self-image of at least some tie to Protestant Christian ethics. Minorities are largely religious in this country.
Nobody talks about or cares about the Muslim minority who are even more outspoken about and opposed to abortion. That might require a journalist to actually talk to them, and we can't have that.
So across the population in general, there is a bronze support for limitations on but allowance for abortion procedures at the same time that there is a definite and intentional distaste for in recognition of the moral complexity.
And if pro-abortion activists could have been smart enough to work within that context, recognize that other people could disagree with them and did disagree with them, and that this agreement is valid so the compromise must be reached – they could have kept winning.
They've been winning on the issue since Roe versus Wade.

But they were too stupid. And they continued to be too stupid to be able to recognize a winning play. They always have to push that one step too far and having committed to it, roll down the slippery slope.
You have idiots nobody wants to have sex with marching in the streets demanding access to full term, partial-birth abortions up to nine months, everywhere, all at once, and paid for by the American tax dollar.
They are not celebrating the possibility that the revocation of Roe versus Wade has devolved the power to decide where that murky line falls to their state...
... a place where theoretically there are more people who think like they do and they could push whatever law or lack thereof they wanted more easily.
No, just as in everything else, the activists are agitating for the right to tell you how you have to live even though you're not their neighbor, not like them, and choose to be nothing like them.

Their cries of demand for autonomy only apply to decisions they agree with.
Like always.
And now we get back around to the original crux: they have chosen territory to fight on which is inherently sand and crumbling under their feet. While claiming moral superiority for doing so.
If they truly wanted to make a good argument, they would have to make a consistent argument. And that might go something like this:
"I fully acknowledge that this clump of cells becomes a living human being at some point. But there is already a living human being who is being forced to comply by this one which exists or will exist at some point in the future…"
"I do not own that woman. You do not own that woman. The State does not own woman. If there is one thing that she can be said to possess, it is herself. She is her own property."
"As such, the State has no real compelling interest to take her property without just compensation on behalf of a third party who will not bear the cost of that compensation."
"A baby does not only its mother. Being pregnant does not immediately make of one a slave. A woman cannot be turned into a broodmare against her will, and advocating for doing so is morally horrific."
"As such, we advocate for the abstention of the State from the decision of any mother to dispose of her property as she so decides. She may do with her womb as she wills."
"We do not ask that the State facilitate in private matters such as medical procedures but we demand that the State be recognized as having no compelling interest in what is essentially a property rights issue."
I think even @jeremykauffman at his most trollriffic Libertarian mode (which I appreciate, let it be known), would be pleased with this take.
The problem for the vast majority of activists is that this is explicitly calling for a limitation on the power of the State – which is not something that either side has any interest in.
Activists are inherently authoritarian. That's the nature of the beast. And when it comes to this current crop, again on both sides, the idea that they are absolutely authoritarian with the moral and righteous power to command you into line? That is their argument.
I am a free choice absolutist. I believe that you should have the absolute free choice to make whatever terrible decisions about your life that you want. In fact, I encourage it. I have to get my entertainment somewhere.
But I don't own you (unless you would like to sign a contract, in which case – I'm perfectly cool with that). Most of you aren't worth owning. Just like most of the pro-abortion activist protesters aren't worth siring a child with.
But keep this in mind as you watch the ridiculous play out on the streets and in the cities (the largely Blue cities in largely Blue states where they now have the freedom to open up abortion limits as wide as they want):
They are liars and idiots. It's not about bodily autonomy and it never has been. It has nothing to do with autonomy at all.

It's about power. It's about dictatorial power. It's about telling other people what they CAN choose.
It's a shame it has nothing to do with property because that might have actually been a reasonable argument, even a winning argument. But it's too much about choice and gives up too much power for these people.
And that's where we stand.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alexander "Lex" Williams

Alexander

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @squidlord

Jun 26
@mvgaea The answer is quit the platform altogether.

Which is not the answer you wanted, but is the answer you're going to get from someone who has been on the Internet since before there was a social media obsession.
@mvgaea See, for some reason you think that this is a new development. I'm not sure why because every form of human communication has been colonized by the ridiculously obsessive and fastest speaking, but there you go.
@mvgaea No, this is never going to become less of a polarizing environment in your lifetime. Now, people are not suddenly going to become capable of reason and logic when they have been taught for their entire lives that their feelings are the only important thing.
Read 12 tweets
Jun 5
One of my favourite games inspiring others to play games to prime games in ways I've already done. (Whoot, 400 Hotsepower!)
Actually, make that **700 Horsepower**!

(I organized the game, you'd think I'd remember the name better but no ... It's been a few years.)

Start with **Watch the World Die** to parametrize the apocalypse.

drivethrurpg.com/product/130592…
Read 8 tweets
Dec 27, 2021
@telemacheth The truth? Here's the truth:

I don't care. Seriously. If the biggest problem you have with that show is that we don't grab and open the doors on the chat room fast enough? That's 100% success.
@telemacheth See, the problem for you is that I'm the guy that has to take care of those things. And I'm usually simultaneously juggling things like making sure that the notes for the stories are in order, the people involved are present, audio is audible…
@telemacheth You know, making the show happen at all in a delicate, complicated electronic ecosystem which depends on multiple people in multiple places on the planet all coming together and generally cooperating.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 17, 2021
@thatguychacko @OdyseeTeam @evianeleidig You – didn't bother to read the rest of what I wrote, did you?

Odysee represents a moderated portal. The underlying LBRY protocol acts as a messaging conduit for the decentralized part of things.
@thatguychacko @OdyseeTeam @evianeleidig Yes, any and everything posted to the LBRY protocol has an immutable content ID name stored in the blockchain side of the protocol. Note that the actual content of that file reference does not exist in the blockchain side of the protocol.
@thatguychacko @OdyseeTeam @evianeleidig LBRY Inc. runs the central wallet server which the portals which they are legally responsible for (Odysee, LBRY.tv, and the desktop application) use by default. The web portals can't have their wallet server changed.
Read 8 tweets
Aug 13, 2020
I find myself torn when thinking about how to work on a new game design project right now. I really enjoy my personal development done in @RoamResearch , with the full wiki treatment. But it's impossible to give people access to just that content if it's highly interconnected.
Eventually, I want to be able to put this content in a format which is consumable by a third party without needing network connectivity or much in the way of computing power.
#Stroll, which @giffmex has been working on, is another great option. While I don't particularly care for the structure that tiddlers impose, mechanically, I really love the story stream presentation, especially when it gets expanded to be more than two columns.
Read 13 tweets
Jun 3, 2020
The funny thing to me about the "Antifa is behind the riots" narrative is that it states, outright, that the "black community" (whatever that is) takes more direction from a bunch of white incel Weimar Germany LARPers than it does any philosophers or logicians, black or white.
That a bunch of college drop-outs or lower can manage an interstate dead-drop logistics campaign to secret away weapons on dynamic parade routes, and are dead certain black people are so dumb they'll mozey along and pick them up -- and are right!
That a couple of white girls from the Outer Borroughs can hand out bricks like big blocks of horse from the back of a car and black dudes just roll up, all day long, getting their fix for the nightly revels.
Read 31 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(