2919

Walsh trash aside, I think it is in fact important to note that the folks at the march for life are in fact not the cynical liars that we often (rightly) accuse the GOP politicians of being.

The politicians are generally just using abortion as a wedge issue, with no regard for anyone involved.

But a lot of the voters they are appealing to, honestly do believe that abortions are killing human beings, and while in many cases they are misguided, I think that most of them genuinely are trying to do the right thing. They’ve just been duped.

I think that’s important to note, that most of those people are acting out of a desire to to good. It’s different than what motivates a lot of other GOP supporters. It’s not born out of racism or xenophobia.

2920

Also worth noting that social conservatives and others who support this attack on bodily autonomy are not politically conservative on this issue. And, man, does that twist their noggins in circles when pointed out.

2921

The most ardent pro-lifer I’ve ever known was a French Canadian Roman Catholic. That is, right up until his teenage daughter got pregnant at which point he turned the screws on her so hard to get an abortion (to avoid public embarrassment if anyone found out what a dirty whore his daughter was) that he sent her on her way to an attempted suicide and a stay at a mental institution. She ended up having the baby despite all that, but from my experience a lot of these folks feel adamantly one way right up until the moment it impacts their own life. Just like conservatives on a lot of other issues, I suppose.

2922

Yeah, I’m sure these marchers think they’re saving the unborn, but unfortunately their cause isn’t to prevent or reduce abortions, it’s just to make them illegal.

If they were marching to make sure every person had free and constant access to birth control and family planning services, then they’d be doing some good.

2923

I also find it rather sad that virtually everyone I’ve met who is pro-life has also been pro-capital punishment.

All life is sacred until it’s been born, but after that it’s “Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out!”

2924

I agree with this, mainly because I see folks like these every day. The teacher who posted the Walsh tweet is the wife of a guy I have known for years. Our kids went to school together, and he is a vet who volunteers countless hours of his time to coach youth sports and help out at his kids schools, which is how we met and became friends. They’re good people at heart who ardently believe that they’re doing the right thing by supporting Right To Life and such.

The problem isn’t so much the people like them at the bottom of this Conservative Republican pyramid (though granted, there are plenty of simple racists, misogynists, etc. among them) as the people at the top layers. As you said, politicians use these people’s beliefs as leverage, and media like Fox News preys on their fears and demonizes any different point of view until there is only The One Way of thinking. This is how well educated, successful and otherwise decent people become GOP lemmings, spouting Fox News nonsense and railing against evil “Liberals!” and “Socialism!”.

I’ve tried many times to have conversations with people like this that centered around “What if we didn’t have to save the babies at all? What if we could do something to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies to almost none? Wouldn’t addressing the issues that lead to unwanted pregnancy be a better, more permanent solution than a battle over legislation which will be overturned again as soon as the other party gains enough control?” The answer is always “No! We have to save all of the babies! Abortion is murder!”, etc. etc. because that is the mindset that has been reinforced by Conservatives for decades now. It’s a combination of manufactured outrage and horror, combined with a strong narrative that being Pro-Life is a heroic stance against the forces of evil, combined with the Christian ideal that “those people have sinned and must suffer the consequences” (which is very convenient when most of “those people” do not look like you or live where you live).

All of which comes back around to most of these people acting racist and misogynistic without even realizing they’re doing so. They think they’re the heroes of their story, they believe they’re doing good, because they’ve been lied to and led to believe there is only one solution (outlawing abortion) for too long. The Pro-Life movement was Conservative alternate reality before Trumpism made Conservative alternate reality mainstream. It’s why so many Pro-Life people were so quick to jump on the MAGA bandwagon and even QAnon. They were already well primed to believe in the alternate reality where they are the heroes and Liberals/Democrats/Pro-Choice/BLM/Antifa are the bad guys.

2925

For a lot of the religious types, the big thing in the “etc. etc” portion is “No! People should not be having sex before marriage/they’re ready for a baby!!!” which is why there’s so much resistance to doing things that actually reduce unwanted pregnancies, like sex education, easy access to birth control, etc.

2926

It is really weird. I know single-issue voters and like you describe, they support capital punishment. All life is sacred and has a soul from the moment of conception so it must be saved at all costs. But the second the child is out of the womb? Well, the ones I know are adamantly opposed to any sort of service that would help insure the child has access to food, medical care, education, etc. Because those things affect them (via taxes) and suddenly it becomes “not my problem!”. None of the hardcore pro-lifers I know seem very pro-life at all.

2927

Perhaps they should be called pro-birth instead.

2928

No. Forced-birth.

2929

Anti-Women would also be accurate.

2930

In fairness, I’m pro capital punishment in certain cases… but that doesn’t mean I think it’s ok to kill anyone at any time.

2931

The difference is I don’t see you preaching the sanctity of life with no exceptions and being a single-issue voter about it.

2932

If I thought that an embryo was a human child, I would.
Like, I absolutely don’t think you should have late term abortions. Immediately prior to birth, that entity is just as much a human child as it is one minute later when it’s outside the mother… so that child’s life is worth protecting to me. As much as anyone else’s… and more than a guy who murdered people.

I don’t vote on it because it doesn’t tend to actually happen. But if someone was running on the platform that they thought we should preserve such a practice, I probably WOULD vote against that person.

It’s just that no one I know is running on the “pro-late-term abortion” platform, so it doesn’t really come up.

And when it comes to early abortions, I don’t consider that to be a human life.

2933

Yes, Facebook is shit, but I’ve been using it for years for community outreach. I like to think they are little islands of sanity floating on the bubbling madness.

And yet, today I learned that a group I manage (on crocodile safety issues) has started hiding roughly 75% of its content from me (including some of my own posts). I’ve tried the usual tricks to see all the posts, but no - it’s as if they never existed. My wife is also an admin and can see them just fine, along with all the members I’ve asked. It’s very easy to jump onboard the “Facebook is censoring me!” train, and maybe I should, but I’d like to think there was a more likely explanation than the admin for a small group on crocodile safety issues is somehow being censored by the evil Facebook overlords. But hey, it’s all starting to make sense.

2934

How can they hide your own posts?

2935

I have no idea. I posted something earlier under my account, later on notifications that I had replies to the post just took me to a “That post doesn’t exist” page. I switched to another account, and I can see everything just fine. I’m pretty much at the “fuck this” stage when it comes to FB, but it’s frustrating.

2936

Facebook, today, sent me a notice that this thing I posted on Oct 12, 2020 is a violation of their Covid hoax policy or something.

Facebook is the dumbest fucking organization that has ever been and everyone there should be shunned.

This is almost as good as the time they decided my obvious satire was against their rules.
Facebook: Our bots determined this is bad, would you like to appeal?
Me: Yes.
Facebook: Our bots still say it’s bad.

Now they claim to have humans in the loop. But they’re apparently the dumb humans, who might not speak English.

2937

I’m sure they speak English… but they may also really like corn, lol

2938

This just happened to me yesterday, I didn’t know it was a thing. Guy posted “hilarious how someone anti-semetic can cancel Gina for being a racist” and I wrote “I don’t think Walt Disney himself fired her.” and he somehow hid that comment. Super dumb.