Eric has suggested on another thread that Amanda Marcotte and I have a blog of our own. It might be entertaining in some respects, but would get boring and pedantic really quick, since we agree on practically nothing other than we both live in Texas (and as a real native, I might question the Texan-ness of anyone living in Austin).
I swore I wouldn't write another post about Pandagon for a while, but this post on repealing the global gag rule is chockful of the sort of insane rhetoric regarding pro-lifers that Miss Amanda is known for. Here's some samples for your amusement:
"Withholding or opposing abortion is the immoral stance, taken out of a hostility to women’s health and women’s rights. Anti-choicers shouldn’t have the moral high ground, because they are wicked, petty assholes who want to increase the amount of suffering in the world to satisfy their misogyny. To be a truly moral person, you can’t exclude half the human race from your consideration."
"The global gag rule isn’t just about abortion. That’s basically, in any realistic sense, a lie. It’s about withholding medical care and contraception. Even without it, the U.S. simply doesn’t fund abortions (though I think they should). It’s a backdoor way to deprive women worldwide of contraception and basic health care, since the people who provide those things pretty much by definition are good-hearted non-misogynists, and thus mostly believe as the logical and good-hearted generally do that abortion is a moral good.* The global gag rule is about giving the U.S. power to root through clinics worldwide looking for evidence of appalling levels of human feeling towards women and depriving them of funding if they find that someone’s committed the thought crime of believing that women should have full rights and options."
"The reason that anti-choicers feel it’s mandatory for their President to push the global gag rule is because they don’t want women to prevent pregnancy or STDs"
"Depriving babies of medical care is another sign that pro-lifers don’t actually love babies. They just hate women."
"The global gag rule is about increasing the rate of AIDS, of fistulas, of maternal morality, all to satisfy the grim anti-sex movement in America."
Like Bush Derangement Syndrome, there seems to be an Abortion Derangement Syndrome (or perhaps Anti-Life Derangement Syndrome). Symptoms include an inability to see any possible reason a person is pro-life beyond the idea they hate women (Amanda puts an asterisk at the end of this screed stating, "If you feel like you are a moral person despite being anti-choice, I agree that it’s possible you are. All moral people have moral lapses and blind spots. Getting towards a more generous stance towards women who need to control their fertility could be a project for you, a bit of moral character improvement"). I would argue that if Amanda is a moral person (and I have serious doubts about that, given her writing and positions on many subjects), that her attitude towards pro-lifers is one of her blind spots. Just sayin'.
OK, that's it for the Pandagon posts for the month. I promise not to write anymore about their nuttiness for the rest of September!
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