"The War On Women"
I have been attempting to scale myself back for the past few days. Honestly, I have. I realize I'm starting to alienate the people I care about with the amount of anger and frustration I display towards things I see as stupid and unreasonable. And while I contend that the only difference between my feed and most of my friend's feeds is that the things pissing me off are the "cause of the week" that a lot of you care about; I care bout you guys (those of you on my friends list, not those of you who are just following me or found me by accident. I hate you guys. -kidding), and it's clear that my venting isn't really helping anything. Arguing doesn't make me feel all that much better, and the truth is that people seem to have lost the ability to look at anything objectively to see my points no matter how I frame them, or how much logic I apply.
All that being said, I have to say *something* about this; but I will try to be a general and non-hostile as I can:
Some of you guys need to calm down with the "Zomg everyone hates and oppresses women" stuff. I keep seeing headlines about "The War Against Women" or "group X/candidate X/company X hates women!"
Guys, seriously, none of these people "hate women." They're not "at war with women" and they're not "against health care for women." Things you seem to not understand:
1. Conservatives - including conservative women - generally tend to believe that human life begins at a much earlier point that most of you do. That's why they're pro-life. It's not because they hate women. It's not because they think they have a right to tell you what to do with your bodies, it's because they believe that what's inside you, almost from the instant of conception, is a life.
Now I'm not interested in debating the merits of this belief with you. This post is not about pro-life vs. pro-choice. That is way too big of a can of worms to get into right now, and I’ll tell you ahead of time, any comments about why this belief is wrong OR right will get deleted. I’m serious.
What this is about is the fact that whether you agree with their belief or not, you need to understand and accept that this is their belief. Believing what’s growing inside of you is a baby doesn’t mean you “hate women.” And no, it doesn’t mean that pro-lifers believe they have a right to tell you what to do with your body. It means that, right or wrong, they believe that abortion is the act of destroying your child’s body. That’s what they believe.
2. Planned Parenthood, amongst other things, is huge proponent of women’s right to have an abortion. Now, keeping in mind that pro-lifers consider unborn children to be human life, as sacred as newborns, an organization that is so active to assist women in destroying unborn children is absolutely abhorrent. This is where the hatred for that organization stems. It has nothing to do with “not believe that women deserve health care.” That’s absurd, and I think that anyone with an ounce of objective thinking knows that. Do you really, honestly believe that there’s a boardroom somewhere with a bunch of one-dimensional, cartoon villains smoking cigars planning the downfall of women? Really, where is the motivation in that?
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The bottom line here is I don’t care if you want to agree with the folks on the other side of the political fence or not, but you are driving me freaking crazy with your total inability (or perhaps flat-out refusal) to even understand the beliefs and motivations of the other side. Half the stuff you’re sharing is framed and worded in such an extreme way that it amounts to flat-out propaganda. All I’m asking is this: from now on, when you read one of these stories, before you flip out and hit re-share in a fait of righteous, oppressed rage; take a deep breath, and ask yourself: “why are they doing/saying this? What is their motivation? Is it possible that the reason this story is so unbelievable is that there’s another angle to it that’s not being mentioned?”
All that being said, I have to say *something* about this; but I will try to be a general and non-hostile as I can:
Some of you guys need to calm down with the "Zomg everyone hates and oppresses women" stuff. I keep seeing headlines about "The War Against Women" or "group X/candidate X/company X hates women!"
Guys, seriously, none of these people "hate women." They're not "at war with women" and they're not "against health care for women." Things you seem to not understand:
1. Conservatives - including conservative women - generally tend to believe that human life begins at a much earlier point that most of you do. That's why they're pro-life. It's not because they hate women. It's not because they think they have a right to tell you what to do with your bodies, it's because they believe that what's inside you, almost from the instant of conception, is a life.
Now I'm not interested in debating the merits of this belief with you. This post is not about pro-life vs. pro-choice. That is way too big of a can of worms to get into right now, and I’ll tell you ahead of time, any comments about why this belief is wrong OR right will get deleted. I’m serious.
What this is about is the fact that whether you agree with their belief or not, you need to understand and accept that this is their belief. Believing what’s growing inside of you is a baby doesn’t mean you “hate women.” And no, it doesn’t mean that pro-lifers believe they have a right to tell you what to do with your body. It means that, right or wrong, they believe that abortion is the act of destroying your child’s body. That’s what they believe.
2. Planned Parenthood, amongst other things, is huge proponent of women’s right to have an abortion. Now, keeping in mind that pro-lifers consider unborn children to be human life, as sacred as newborns, an organization that is so active to assist women in destroying unborn children is absolutely abhorrent. This is where the hatred for that organization stems. It has nothing to do with “not believe that women deserve health care.” That’s absurd, and I think that anyone with an ounce of objective thinking knows that. Do you really, honestly believe that there’s a boardroom somewhere with a bunch of one-dimensional, cartoon villains smoking cigars planning the downfall of women? Really, where is the motivation in that?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The bottom line here is I don’t care if you want to agree with the folks on the other side of the political fence or not, but you are driving me freaking crazy with your total inability (or perhaps flat-out refusal) to even understand the beliefs and motivations of the other side. Half the stuff you’re sharing is framed and worded in such an extreme way that it amounts to flat-out propaganda. All I’m asking is this: from now on, when you read one of these stories, before you flip out and hit re-share in a fait of righteous, oppressed rage; take a deep breath, and ask yourself: “why are they doing/saying this? What is their motivation? Is it possible that the reason this story is so unbelievable is that there’s another angle to it that’s not being mentioned?”