"I advocated for policies that hurt marginalized people to benefit the powerful.
And I am not so full of myself that I think I could never do that again"
The first sentence is a pretty good example of not only a realization very few are honest or self reflective enough to develop and the second is where many might get further stuck as they rest their belief system on criteria that has not been reexamined in the context of the current paradigm.
It seems the height of cynicism when folks like ACB trot out something so demonstrable false. There is so much power in these simple false narratives that then are adopted as a kind of verbal short circuit that allows the speaker to then convince themselves and others of it's veracity by completely avoiding applying critical thinking skills. Some of the folks pushing the narrative may spend some time "researching" only to find articles that have been seeded to provide data to support their argument and allow a fall back shortcut to provide the illusion of critical thought.
It's really quite astounding how often pregnancy is only cast in the light of having minimal impact on the person carrying a fetus. The reality is that the body is in a constant struggle with the fetus to keep the parent body's from being depleted of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional components not only from daily intake but existing body parts like teeth and bones. Not to mention the growth of the fetus causes relocation and compression of internal organs as well as associated damage to skin, abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and such. This is permanent change that does not repair when "you just give the baby up for adoption".
This is why I always read Lyman Stone, despite often getting angry at his hard-line authoritarian traditional-religious values: he is scrupulous about his facts and doesn't try to soft-pedal the costs of his policy preferences.
Besides the considerations you mention, there are Feynman's dicta that "Nature cannot be fooled" and "you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool," i.e. lying has inescapable material costs that typically redound on the liar even if they try to foist those costs off on others, in part because it so often goes along with self deception. I think this may be what attracts some people to the whole Objectivist "A is A" thing, which at its best can help reinforce that reason for not lying.
When someone as obviously smart as Amy Coney Barrett makes such obviously wrong (and cruel) pronouncements, I always first wonder - does she really believe it?
Or maybe she knows all the facts -- that large numbers of women will suffer and even die -- and maybe that’s the point.
White conservative Christianity claims to be all about forgiveness, but it’s real guiding principle is punishment.
I’ve talked to a number of conservative Christians about abortion. While they’ll mention by rote the “sacredness of the unborn” their real passion is about all these women using “abortion as easy birth control.” Making them have babies is a way of punishing them for their sin.
It’s like the Christian parents who refuse to let their pre-teens get the HPV vaccine because it would “encourage them to have sex.” The threat of cancer is like the threat of burning in hell.
Facts, data and outcomes are irrelevant when the point is God needs to punish.
Lying about your political beliefs is completely different than a white lie to hurt someone's feelings or even a simple lie to save face. Do you mean to tell me when your boss asks you about some project she had asked you to finish by the end of the day and you totally forgot it, you don't say "I have been working on it, I will have it to you be the end of day," even if you totally forgot and maybe your only "working" had been some idle thought in the shower?
"I advocated for policies that hurt marginalized people to benefit the powerful.
And I am not so full of myself that I think I could never do that again"
The first sentence is a pretty good example of not only a realization very few are honest or self reflective enough to develop and the second is where many might get further stuck as they rest their belief system on criteria that has not been reexamined in the context of the current paradigm.
It seems the height of cynicism when folks like ACB trot out something so demonstrable false. There is so much power in these simple false narratives that then are adopted as a kind of verbal short circuit that allows the speaker to then convince themselves and others of it's veracity by completely avoiding applying critical thinking skills. Some of the folks pushing the narrative may spend some time "researching" only to find articles that have been seeded to provide data to support their argument and allow a fall back shortcut to provide the illusion of critical thought.
It's really quite astounding how often pregnancy is only cast in the light of having minimal impact on the person carrying a fetus. The reality is that the body is in a constant struggle with the fetus to keep the parent body's from being depleted of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional components not only from daily intake but existing body parts like teeth and bones. Not to mention the growth of the fetus causes relocation and compression of internal organs as well as associated damage to skin, abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and such. This is permanent change that does not repair when "you just give the baby up for adoption".
This is why I always read Lyman Stone, despite often getting angry at his hard-line authoritarian traditional-religious values: he is scrupulous about his facts and doesn't try to soft-pedal the costs of his policy preferences.
Besides the considerations you mention, there are Feynman's dicta that "Nature cannot be fooled" and "you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool," i.e. lying has inescapable material costs that typically redound on the liar even if they try to foist those costs off on others, in part because it so often goes along with self deception. I think this may be what attracts some people to the whole Objectivist "A is A" thing, which at its best can help reinforce that reason for not lying.
When someone as obviously smart as Amy Coney Barrett makes such obviously wrong (and cruel) pronouncements, I always first wonder - does she really believe it?
Or maybe she knows all the facts -- that large numbers of women will suffer and even die -- and maybe that’s the point.
White conservative Christianity claims to be all about forgiveness, but it’s real guiding principle is punishment.
I’ve talked to a number of conservative Christians about abortion. While they’ll mention by rote the “sacredness of the unborn” their real passion is about all these women using “abortion as easy birth control.” Making them have babies is a way of punishing them for their sin.
It’s like the Christian parents who refuse to let their pre-teens get the HPV vaccine because it would “encourage them to have sex.” The threat of cancer is like the threat of burning in hell.
Facts, data and outcomes are irrelevant when the point is God needs to punish.
Lying about your political beliefs is completely different than a white lie to hurt someone's feelings or even a simple lie to save face. Do you mean to tell me when your boss asks you about some project she had asked you to finish by the end of the day and you totally forgot it, you don't say "I have been working on it, I will have it to you be the end of day," even if you totally forgot and maybe your only "working" had been some idle thought in the shower?
https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Lies-Internet-About-Really/dp/0062390856