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If this is a question about political differences, why are you giving it tags like fan, teams and sports? LJ, can't you ever ask a question without making me go "Huh?"
I've never ended a friendship over political differences (though some have ended friendships with me over them), and I thank my family for that. Some of my relatives are very conservative, and some are very liberal; some are very religious, and some are anti-religious. Because they're family, I saw them first as whole, multifaceted people rather than walking Arguing Points. I also learned how to Not Talk About Politics.
I know, in this day and age, we think everyone really, really needs to know our opinions on things, but it ain't true, Internet!
That said, yes, I do have two issues that are rapidly becoming Get It Or Get Out issues for me.
The first is reproductive rights. Or rather, the sovereignty of your body--I don't have the right to make you or to forbid you to procreate, medicate, defecate, etc. It's your body, and that's absolute. I know some will talk about the rights of the fetus, but given that most pregnancies end spontaneously, without the woman ever knowing she'd even been pregnant, how can we demand that the one with the existing life be forced to kneel to the whims of a few cells that may or may not grow into a human being eventually?
This "life begins at conception" notion is a very new concept, born of modern society's much lower infant mortality rates. At various earlier times, infants weren't considered fully human until parents could be reasonably sure they wouldn't just drop dead one day. Really, truly, it is not Biblical--according to the Bible, you don't have a soul until you've taken your first breath, and if you don't have a soul, you're not human.
Maybe it would be less of a knee-jerk issue for me if it weren't so often couched in terms of punishment, if it weren't saying that women should be forced to carry to term because those are the consequences of spreading your legs! Mother and child should then, obviously, live in abject poverty and penance until both die of starvation, whereupon their sins are clean. Ah, but that won't happen, because us damn us liberals and our welfare system keep feeding these undeserving sluts and their brats!
I know! No one who spouts this crap regarding abortion should be allowed a liver or lung transplant after years of smoking and drinking. Consequences all around, yay!
Bah. Until men get pregnant or I get the right to implant embryos into random male philanderers and tell them they have to carry it to term (and deliver naturally), nobody should be telling me what to do with my own body. That's all I'm saying.
The other issue is gay marriage, and this is especially frustrating because I am, generally speaking, against marriage. Marriage is a gilded noose, and the minute you want out, it tightens and everything you shared is now a hostage against your leaving. So fuck that noise! Legal contracts for everyone--yea, verily, these consenting adults shall co-habitate and bind their lives financially and legally; here are their rights, their responsibilities, and how this contract may be civilly and equitably dissolved in the event that they should so wish it.
I got issues. I know.
But to say that a group of adults should be denied the same rights as other adults just because it makes you squeamish, or contradicts your religion, or because you have some preconceived notion of them as unworthy, that's just discrimination. I don't care how you couch it or justify it, you're basically saying, "I don't think you deserve the same rights that I get," based not on something reasonable (like denying felons the right to carry guns--yes, please, let's not give the former bank robber a license to carry!) but upon their biology.
Brown-eyed people don't get to marry. Blondes don't get to have children. People darker than a paper bag don't get to shop at Wal-Mart. People with detached earlobes must submit to strip searches at every fourth intersection!
To put it in very simple terms, me having the same rights as you is not in any way, shape or form oppressing you. That's not how oppression works, America. Get a dictionary already.
Mind you, again, I'm anti-marriage, so this should be a non-issue, except that it's my friends who keep bringing up justifications for denying me the right to marry in conversation. No, not gays--me, assholes, because you don't get to weasel out of it by making it an exercise in faceless rhetoric. I am not straight, motherfuckers. You are not casually telling me your off-the-cuff opinion on an issue that in no way affects your daily life. You are telling me that you don't think I deserve the same rights and privileges you get.
So yeah, fuck you too, and don't get huffy at me when I call you on this bullshit. Again, I'm the one it actually affects.
Yeah, we will not agree to disagree there, unless by 'disagree', you mean 'submit to my foot going up your ass.'
If this is a question about political differences, why are you giving it tags like fan, teams and sports? LJ, can't you ever ask a question without making me go "Huh?"
I've never ended a friendship over political differences (though some have ended friendships with me over them), and I thank my family for that. Some of my relatives are very conservative, and some are very liberal; some are very religious, and some are anti-religious. Because they're family, I saw them first as whole, multifaceted people rather than walking Arguing Points. I also learned how to Not Talk About Politics.
I know, in this day and age, we think everyone really, really needs to know our opinions on things, but it ain't true, Internet!
That said, yes, I do have two issues that are rapidly becoming Get It Or Get Out issues for me.
The first is reproductive rights. Or rather, the sovereignty of your body--I don't have the right to make you or to forbid you to procreate, medicate, defecate, etc. It's your body, and that's absolute. I know some will talk about the rights of the fetus, but given that most pregnancies end spontaneously, without the woman ever knowing she'd even been pregnant, how can we demand that the one with the existing life be forced to kneel to the whims of a few cells that may or may not grow into a human being eventually?
This "life begins at conception" notion is a very new concept, born of modern society's much lower infant mortality rates. At various earlier times, infants weren't considered fully human until parents could be reasonably sure they wouldn't just drop dead one day. Really, truly, it is not Biblical--according to the Bible, you don't have a soul until you've taken your first breath, and if you don't have a soul, you're not human.
Maybe it would be less of a knee-jerk issue for me if it weren't so often couched in terms of punishment, if it weren't saying that women should be forced to carry to term because those are the consequences of spreading your legs! Mother and child should then, obviously, live in abject poverty and penance until both die of starvation, whereupon their sins are clean. Ah, but that won't happen, because us damn us liberals and our welfare system keep feeding these undeserving sluts and their brats!
I know! No one who spouts this crap regarding abortion should be allowed a liver or lung transplant after years of smoking and drinking. Consequences all around, yay!
Bah. Until men get pregnant or I get the right to implant embryos into random male philanderers and tell them they have to carry it to term (and deliver naturally), nobody should be telling me what to do with my own body. That's all I'm saying.
The other issue is gay marriage, and this is especially frustrating because I am, generally speaking, against marriage. Marriage is a gilded noose, and the minute you want out, it tightens and everything you shared is now a hostage against your leaving. So fuck that noise! Legal contracts for everyone--yea, verily, these consenting adults shall co-habitate and bind their lives financially and legally; here are their rights, their responsibilities, and how this contract may be civilly and equitably dissolved in the event that they should so wish it.
I got issues. I know.
But to say that a group of adults should be denied the same rights as other adults just because it makes you squeamish, or contradicts your religion, or because you have some preconceived notion of them as unworthy, that's just discrimination. I don't care how you couch it or justify it, you're basically saying, "I don't think you deserve the same rights that I get," based not on something reasonable (like denying felons the right to carry guns--yes, please, let's not give the former bank robber a license to carry!) but upon their biology.
Brown-eyed people don't get to marry. Blondes don't get to have children. People darker than a paper bag don't get to shop at Wal-Mart. People with detached earlobes must submit to strip searches at every fourth intersection!
To put it in very simple terms, me having the same rights as you is not in any way, shape or form oppressing you. That's not how oppression works, America. Get a dictionary already.
Mind you, again, I'm anti-marriage, so this should be a non-issue, except that it's my friends who keep bringing up justifications for denying me the right to marry in conversation. No, not gays--me, assholes, because you don't get to weasel out of it by making it an exercise in faceless rhetoric. I am not straight, motherfuckers. You are not casually telling me your off-the-cuff opinion on an issue that in no way affects your daily life. You are telling me that you don't think I deserve the same rights and privileges you get.
So yeah, fuck you too, and don't get huffy at me when I call you on this bullshit. Again, I'm the one it actually affects.
Yeah, we will not agree to disagree there, unless by 'disagree', you mean 'submit to my foot going up your ass.'
