Who gets to have an opinion?
There's a lot of bile in the US on the subject of gun control right now, most of it relatively grim and uninteresting.
One particular aspect caught my eye, though. Firstly, some pro-gun people said things along the lines of "you aren't a gun user; you're not qualified to have an opinion on gun safety". To which some anti-gun people retorted "you don't have a uterus; you're not qualified to have an opinion on abortion".
Given that gun control and abortion do indeed seem to polarise along pretty much the same axis in the US, that response strikes me as largely fair.
But…
Would pro-abortion, anti-gun people be happy if the pro-gun, anti-abortion people said "OK, we hereby withdraw our stance on abortion. Now you can't complain about guns"?
What if they instead said "OK, yes, you can express a view on guns. Now you can't complain about our expressing a view on abortion"?
I have the impression many pro-abortion, anti-gun people feel they have every right to protest about guns, but think the pro-gun, anti-abortion people should shut up about abortion. Isn't that the mirror-image problem?
In reality, to quote Ben Goldacre, I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that. Some people are so heavily invested in an issue they find it difficult to take a dispassionate view; some people are so divorced from an issue they can't take an informed view.
On gun control, abortion and so many other issues, it would be nice if both sides could acknowledge this and move on.
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.
One particular aspect caught my eye, though. Firstly, some pro-gun people said things along the lines of "you aren't a gun user; you're not qualified to have an opinion on gun safety". To which some anti-gun people retorted "you don't have a uterus; you're not qualified to have an opinion on abortion".
Given that gun control and abortion do indeed seem to polarise along pretty much the same axis in the US, that response strikes me as largely fair.
But…
Would pro-abortion, anti-gun people be happy if the pro-gun, anti-abortion people said "OK, we hereby withdraw our stance on abortion. Now you can't complain about guns"?
What if they instead said "OK, yes, you can express a view on guns. Now you can't complain about our expressing a view on abortion"?
I have the impression many pro-abortion, anti-gun people feel they have every right to protest about guns, but think the pro-gun, anti-abortion people should shut up about abortion. Isn't that the mirror-image problem?
In reality, to quote Ben Goldacre, I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that. Some people are so heavily invested in an issue they find it difficult to take a dispassionate view; some people are so divorced from an issue they can't take an informed view.
On gun control, abortion and so many other issues, it would be nice if both sides could acknowledge this and move on.
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.