[extropy-chat] Stem Cell Politics

[justin corwin]

On 5/18/05, Olga Bourlin <fauxever at sprynet.com> wrote:
> Ahaaaaaaaaaaa, so you say "OK" to abortion in some cases.  (Oh, oh ...
> what's that ahead there? ... Why it appears to be a slippery slope!)
<snip>

Perhaps I missed something, but are you suggesting that Mr. Lorrey is
against abortion in all cases and that this represents some kind of
inconsistency? I could have sworn some pages back Mike clearly
enunciated that he was a hunter, okay with death,  and that he was in
fact, simply advocating clear and honest admission of responsibility,
and that the decisions be made with regard to what he calls
contractual obligations.

It's amusing to me, that Mike gets pushed into arguments so much on
this list, and is almost always implicitly blamed for it. It's true
that he tends to rant a bit on the Right side of things, when many
here lean Left, but here, like so many cases, his Right-like speech is
being twisted into some caricature of full on Republicanism, when he
hasn't said anything of the kind. And no doubt Mr. Lorrey will angrily
come back, adding details which may in themselves contain further fuel
for the fire.

In another amusingness, I have to point out that the term "slippery
slope" actually enters modern politics from the american gun lobby,
the NRA. I don't think this particular argument can really be applied
to all situations. After all, if all points on any continous
relationship are identical, we might as well give up trying to make
any decisions in any situation. Mike is simply acknowledging that
people may have to make a decision based on complicated input. It's
unfortunate for political activists of all flavors, but not everything
fits on a t-shirt.

> And in any and all cases ... who's going to be the judge, anyway?

I don't think it's best to just throw our hands up and decide that
since something is complex, it should be broadly brushed in either
direction for convenience's sake.

-- 
Justin Corwin
outlawpoet at hell.com
http://outlawpoet.blogspot.com
http://www.adaptiveai.com