Misdirection

I breathe air.
I put my pants on one leg at a time.
In my veins and arteries, blood flows.

The above statements are all true, very true. I can defend the veracity of each claim on short notice. I could also make a bunch more statements of that type and you could not prove them false. Those statements differentiate me from absolutely no one. I suppose that if aliens fly in tomorrow in an interstellar spaceship, I could make those statements in an effort to convince them that those things made me special. Robert Heinlein said that the best way to lie was to tell the truth so unconvincingly that no one believes you. In my statements you can see the spirit of that description of a lie. Basically I tell the truth in such a way as to make someone believe that the truth I have spoken is specific to me, that others cannot truthfully make such a statement. I don't actually come out and say that others cannot make that statement, I simply (mis)lead my listener(reader) into coming to that conclusion on their own, making a wrong assumption, if you will.

I am fairly widely traveled, geographically and socially. I have spoken and interacted with a very broad range of people. If one looks at my Facebook "friends" list or my Linkedin contacts list or my email contacts list, one would find people from all over the United States and my verifiable history would show a lot of travel throughout Western Europe and North Africa. I have spoken with folk where I could and at times, inadvertently listened to people without their knowledge. I have not restricted my listening or interacting to people I agree or disagree with. I've talked to communists, socialists, neo Nazis, capitalists, corporatists, liberals and conservatives of all stripe whenever I had the chance.  In all of that time, in all of those conversations that I was a part of or merely overheard, in all of the blogs or print opinion pieces I have read, I have NEVER, not one time, heard or heard of anyone who claimed to be "pro-abortion". So let me add one more statement to the list I started with.

I am anti-abortion.

Yep, that is another one of those demonstrably true statements that differentiates me from no one I have ever met or heard of. This essay not withstanding, there is only one reason to describe oneself in such terms. You do it as an attempt to deceive. You use such a statement to suggest that there exists a significant population of those who cannot truthfully make such a statement and you are somehow different from them. Essentially, you make such a statement to tell a lie that can't be held against you in court.

There are no pro-abortionists. The clinics and doctors that perform abortions do not seek out pregnant women and try to sell them on the benefits of having an abortion. There has never been a line of sign-wielding protestors demanding abortions for all. No candidate for office, no matter how liberal the constituency, has claimed to be in favor of making sure that all pregnant females have abortions. Even those who, like me, believe that there are far too many people on the planet, do not advocate abortion as the solution. Birth control, yes but, we want that instituted on the front end with a pill, a condom or other means. Even in China with their one child policy, they would rather not have to enforce that policy with abortion. As there are no pro-abortionists, the only reason to claim to be anti-abortion is to deceive, to confuse the issue, to misdirect, to lie. If your position on a given issue is so weak that you have to open your defense with deception, you may need to reevaluate your position.

Claiming status as anti-abortion or pro-life is no more defining or informative than claiming the Atlantic ocean has water in it. As a staunchly pro-choice individual, I suggest that it is way past time that we stop allowing the immoral opposition, who would establish their position with a lie. to frame the conversation. If they can defend their anti-choice position honestly and morally, I am more than willing to have that discussion. My first piece as a columnist suggested that the anti-choice crowd should adopt every unwanted child as well as "adopting" young families to make sure that they know the things they need to know and have someone to talk to before things get overwhelming. I have publicly lamented the use of abortion as hugely risky and expensive birth control. I have not sought to deceive. I can and will defend my position without resorting to lies.(even those that can't be used against me in court)

 

CAFKIA