Posts Tagged 'abortion'
Follow-up — Tony Milillo — The pathology of the hard left
My last post concerned abortion. I also put it on the Capital District Humanist Society's Facebook page, where one Tony Milillo entered two comments — highly revealing and instructive. Here they are, in their entirety:
1. Well there you have it, according to Frank S. Robinson anyone who has an abortion from the end of the second trimester forward is killing a human being. And Frank "the expert on everything" also declares Roe v. Wade "a bad decision". How the heck has the humanist society tolerated this blowhard for so long? From what I can see, the best that can be said about this guy is he has far too much time on his hands and far too high an opinion of himself.
2. From bad to worse from Mr. Robinson: "Talk of "women controlling their own bodies" is another big mistake of pro-choicers. If there's a second human life inside it, it's not just your own body any more, so the notion is morally shaky. But what the issue really does come down to is women having some control over their LIVES."
First notice that my essay's mainly criticizing Republican pro-lifers isn't good enough for Mr. Milillo; I'm as bad as they are because I'm not an absolutist pro-choice zealot.
Then notice that, to fit me into his box, Mr. Milillo's very first sentence grossly misrepresents what I wrote; imputes to me a view my essay explicitly contradicted.
It set forth the reasons behind my thinking. But notice also that Mr. Milillo's two comments contain not a single word of actual argument. As though his own rightness and my wrongness is a given. Indeed, his second comment simply quotes me. Case closed! Res ipsa loquitur! It's self-evident I'm wrong, no need to explain why.
And what we do get, in place of any reasoned argument, is a lot of insults.
Notice particularly this line: "How the heck has the humanist society tolerated this blowhard for so long?" So he's saying I should be blackballed. For failing a test of political correctness as decreed (though not actually explained) by Mr. Tony Milillo — who, incidentally, has never been seen at a meeting of said organization (in which I happen to fulfill three separate roles). I think the organization, which actually does adhere to the principles of humanism, including reasoned discourse, will not follow Mr. Milillo's recommendation.
This is why the left gets a rep for intolerance toward diversity of viewpoints. Believing in freedom of thought and expression, but only for themselves, all others be damned. Almost literally.
Elsewhere, this same Mr. Milillo calls Joe Biden (another notorious deviant from Mr. Milillo's catechism) "a fucking liar." And what is the alleged lie? Biden's comments to the effect that Republicans are human beings who can be reasoned with and who need to be kept in the fold of American society. Mr. Milillo goes on at great length disagreeing, explaining why Republicans are irredeemable. (Well, at least there's some actual argument here.) But I'm not sure what Mr. Milillo's solution is. Shooting them?
I'm a former lifelong Republican who hates what the party has become. But I agree with Biden that we must search for common ground.
If guys like Mr. Milillo succeed in tearing down every voice that doesn't gibe with their extremist hard left view, they will get Trump re-elected. Mr. Milillo's kind of scorched-earth politics is tearing this country apart and will end in its destruction.
Tags:abortion
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Society | 5 Comments »
The dishonest Kavanaugh charade
Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says Roe v. Wade is "settled law." Well, settled law is what the Supreme Court says. "Separate but (supposedly) equal" was settled law for 57 years until in 1954 the Court said it wasn't. Kavanaugh refuses to admit that he would (with alacrity) provide the needed fifth vote to overturn Roe.
In fact that's precisely his nomination's raison d'etre. A lot of voters abide a stinking piece of shit as president just to get a Supreme Court that will end abortion rights. Trump is delivering on that devil's bargain.
Kavanaugh's record makes it a sure thing that he'd vote to reverse Roe. That was clear from Senator Hirono's questioning. In one case Kavanaugh ruled that having to file a two-page form was an "undue burden," while in another it wasn't an "undue burden" on a woman to be held in involuntary detention — where in both cases the result was to prevent abortions.
Roe was a legal case but abortion is a political issue. If you want to curtail abortion rights, then at least have the honesty to say so — instead of hiding behind this "settled law" crap, which makes the whole process a dishonest charade.
Of course, honesty is the last thing we can expect from the Trump administration. There's not an honest bone in its body.
For the record, I'm not pro-abortion, and always thought Roe was both badly decided and politically bad. Abortion rights were inexorably progressing through normal democratic processes, until the Court's action made the issue toxically divisive. But for it to turn things upside down again now, by reversing Roe, would be even worse, unleashing political Armageddon. Saner heads on the Court should recoil from doing that.
But, like honesty, sanity is in short supply among today's Republicans.
Posted in Politics, Society, stinking piece of shit | Leave a Comment »