Meme of American controversies...

[fajrdrako]

I got this from gillo. It's about things people might argue about, if the subject came up. It strikes me as - not so much surprising, but striking - how these questions may be of burning immediacy to Americans but they've either been settled in Canada (like the death penalty and gay marriage) or they just don't apply.

Comments

[gillo]

It is incredibly American isn't it? Most points are so far from being controversial it's hard to recall they once were. Abortion's been legal here all my adult life and before, and is only an issue with Catholics and a few others who want to restrict people's rights. The idea that you can "call off" a war you started in somebody else's country is equally bizarre. And so on.

We don't differ on much. I can't say I'm very surprised.

[fajrdrako]

It is incredibly American isn't it?

Yes. I had to scratch my head and translate into Canadian culture. Do we even have an equivalent problem to illegal Mexican immigrants? Not really. As for abortion - Dr Morgentaler, who was in and out of jail for years becuase of the illegal abortions he performed and the activism he incited - he recently got the Order of Canada (which is like the OBE) for his heroic work. And most Canadians applauded. As they should.

The idea that you can "call off" a war you started in somebody else's country is equally bizarre.

Well, yes. I didn't even know where to start in commenting on that one. I gave up.

We don't differ on much. I can't say I'm very surprised.

Me neither. I liked your answers, too.

[gillo]

Thank you. I'm feeling very reassured by my intelligent, thoughtful flist.

[fajrdrako]

Well: I'd like to think we get the flists we earn and deserve.

[silverwhistle]

Exactly. This is pretty uncontroversial for British people, too.
Re: 9, we have civil partnerships - the 'marriage' word is unimportant, and most people call them marriages anyway!

I'm an atheist, pro-choice on abortion, anti-death penalty, and don't care what people do with flags - they're just bits of cloth. None of this is all that controversial where I live. I'm anti-drugs, but I think decriminalisation (and re-medicalisation) may be the best way forward with the hard stuff, and hash should be taxed like tobacco (I find smoking anti-social, and am glad it's no longer accepted in pubs and restaurants).

[fajrdrako]

I think it might simply be a good idea to make marijuana available by prescription, like other medical drugs - though I have trouble thinking of it as very dangerous. I'm anti-drugs and anti-alcohol on the whole, but I don't think making things illegal solves the problems connected with them. Regulation helps.

[silverwhistle]

I regard alcohol as fine in moderation, but drunkenness, and drinking to get drunk, is not. I know some people who smoke marijuana; I think it's vile, smelly stuff, a sort of combination of smoking and drunkenness, and should be treated more like alcohol and tobacco - taxed and regulated.

[fajrdrako]

I have a terrible horror of drunkenness. I hate being with people who are drinking much at all. It makes me uncomfortable. I think of marijuana as being more like tobacco - smelly to be around, but okay if I don't have to be present. I'm not sure if it isn't less socially or personally damaging, becuase it's less addictive than nicotine, and I know smokers who are ruining their health (not to mention their body odour) because they just can't stop smoking.

[silverwhistle]

Re: Question 11, doesn't 3 deal with it?
A child that young has probably been abused to get pregnant, and to make her go through with a pregnancy (and probably physically damaging birth) is to compound the abuse.

[fajrdrako]

Re: Question 11, doesn't 3 deal with it?

Of course abortion should be an option there. Absolutely.

[silverwhistle]

I'd go further, and say it was a necessity, for medical and psychological reasons.

[fajrdrako]

I was hedging a little, thinking that one of the problems of being 12 is that no one takes you seriously or treats you with much respect, let alone allowing you to use your own judgement about your own life and future, and that forcing an abortion on a person might, in some cases, be adding trauma to trauma. But it's also probably the right choice in 999 out of 1,000 of such cases.

(And now the idea of 1,000 such cases has given me a major squick. Poor girls.)

[xinef]

http://xinef.livejournal.com/286053.html

[duncanmac]

I too wrote a reply to these.