Stanek weekend question: Do you agree pro-life messaging is simple, pro-abortion complicated?
An abortion proponent has made an interesting observation, something I’d never considered. By Stile4Aly at Daily Kos, July 31:
… Which brings us to my new Twitter friend. I’ve long said that conservatives tend to do better with their messaging because their ideas are so simple that they can fit on a bumper sticker. ”Abortion stops a beating heart” is a better message than “Well, actually abortion is a complex issue…” even though the latter has the benefit of being true. So, 140 characters provides the perfect space for regurgitation of talking points….
Does Stil4Aly have a point? Is pro-life messaging easier to disperse than pro-abortion messaging? If you agree, why do you think this is?
Aug.02, 2014 7:08 am |
Weekend question |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
when you have to lie, yes, the message is more complicated.
No – they can keep it simple:
Be selfish – abort!
Dead child = freedom
Orgasms, not children
Abort early and often!
And the ever popular:
My body, my choice
Stile4Aly claims truth, but ignores something as simple as: Abortion stops a beating heart.
What Stile4Aly is really saying is: It’s morally okay to stop a beating heart.
Why make it complex? Why add makeup to the ugliness?
Embrace it!
But do us all a favor – after you’ve completely embraced a woman’s right to kill her own children, and then acted upon it, don’t cry when there are no children to carry on your depraved cause. Because with choice comes consequences. Stick that on your bumper sticker.
But I always see the bumper stickers ‘Don’t like abortion, don’t have one’ And my response to the obvious problems with that statement wouldn’t fit on a bumper sticker.
ABsitively: But I always see the bumper stickers ‘Don’t like abortion, don’t have one’ And my response to the obvious problems with that statement wouldn’t fit on a bumper sticker.
It’s the same for both sides. With abortion/miscarriage, “a beating heart” does not stop all the time, in the first place.
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Chris: Stick that on your bumper sticker.
:P Dude, you’d need a great big honkin’ bumper sticker for the response you posted.
The discrepancy of the two views is not about simple – complex; truth – lies, nor about anything other than a viewpoint.
It seems to me that pro-life speaking is about the ‘other’ and we fail (miserably) to include these as human. Humans are inclusive creatures. On the other hand PC is about the independent-me. It excludes the frail because ‘being-human’ involves throwing vulnerable-people under-the-bus.
The old way of handling this was out-of-site out-of-mind. A child was not getting bigger in a pregnant woman’s body. It was that she-was-getting-fatter.
PL is about defending the ‘other’ rather than inclusion (as it should be). PC is about me/my-wishes/my-views .. all that counts is ‘me’ … a nation is a grouping of me-citizens and excluding non-me is the human life … human-me experience.
When you have to tie yourself in to pretzels to make something as egregious as abortion sound good, the message necessarily becomes complex.
Each message is about as simple or complicated as an individual proponent chooses to make it. Honestly, I don’t know where the idea comes that the pro-life message is always simple. There’s pro-life philosophers who will write dissertations on every little detail of the abortion debate. Likewise, as has already been pointed out, there certainly are pro-choice bumper stickers. That is to say, the pro-choice message isn’t always complicated. In summary, no, I don’t think Stile4Aly is right in general.
Well…WE (Pro-Lifers) are not the ones having to do all the “mental gymnastics” to defend the indefensible, now are we ?
Being concise does not shine a good light on the ‘abortion is ok’ crowd. Their bumper stickers would read ‘Choose to Kill’
Def PL you dont have to be a liar!
Doug – it’s only the last line intended for the bumper sticker:
Choice -> Consequences
That’ll fit.
John McDonnell – I agree with your analysis, but for most people, at some point in their lives reality kicks in, and they realize the world no longer revolves around them. Whether that continues or not – we’ll have to see.
In my experience, liberals wear many more bumper stickers than conservatives do.
Both sides attempt to get a sound bite that will capture the public imagination.
My favorite bumper sticker says, “Abortion is NOT Healthcare.” It has generated discussions with strangers and friends.
However, any discussion of the ideas takes more words than a twitter post.
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Concerning the pro-life v. pro-abortion discussion, the pro-borts have it much more difficult. They don’t have anything as compelling as an ultrasound. They don’t even want to use their own words, like “abortion” and “choice.” So the mental gymnastics are hard work for them, and they avoid public debates.
Personally, I observe that life, as God designed it, is really simple. When we insist that it’s not His design or insist that we don’t have to follow His rules, then we complicate it.
John McD: The discrepancy of the two views is not…. about anything other than a viewpoint.
Hey John. Agreed.
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JDC: Each message is about as simple or complicated as an individual proponent chooses to make it.
Agreed.
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Chris: Doug – it’s only the last line intended for the bumper sticker:
Choice -> Consequences
That’ll fit.
Agreed, Chris. (However, that’s really only saying there is cause and effect. It doesn’t address the abortion debate.)
“I am not a smart man…but I know what love is.” -Forest Gump
“Love until it hurts.” -Mother Teresa
Sometimes it is the uncomplicated people who have it all figured out.
Hey Doug – when I wrote Choice->Consequences I immediately thought of Genesis 3 – in the Garden of Eden and a particular choice being made there too!
The long term consequences of abortion-choice have been a dwindling supply of children to follow your political will – unless you assert a dominance over them by political means.
The right still hasn’t understood the fight for life should also occur in the teachers unions and schools. But it’s coming.
Chris, I don’t take the Bible quite as literally as you do, but I hear you, and I’m a believer in free will.
The long term consequences of abortion-choice have been a dwindling supply of children to follow your political will – unless you assert a dominance over them by political means.
“Dwindling supply”? The population of the US and of the world has been growing very fast through all of my lifetime.
Also… “children to follow my political will..” ….what? You really lost me there. I don’t necessarily want anybody to follow like that – and it probably sounds odd, but I really don’t “want” anything, in the first place. I’m happy enough with the way things are.
Not that things are not very bad in some respects; but I see no rational hope that they can or will be changed. Being a realist, and drawing a balance across everything, I’m happy enough (and I think that many people around the world are that way, even though in theory I might be very jealous of them, or pity them a ton).
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The right still hasn’t understood the fight for life should also occur in the teachers unions and schools. But it’s coming.
Those teachers’ unions might be a hard sell, there… (My wife is a teacher.)
As a practical matter for your side in the debate, you may be right, I don’t know. For me to envision such a thing really taking place, I think we need a real shock to the system, and I’m 99% sure it would be economic. This could pave the way for a “strongman” to take over, and perhaps that would be accompanied by some changes that you favor.
I actually find it difficult to frame the pro-life discussion verbally with others, and this is why: when I am speaking, my emotions get involved. I care so very much about babies, that I am greatly disturbed when I discover that someone I know and like is pro-abortion. It literally hurts in my chest to know that they could defend killing innocent babes. I therefore pray for the person’s conversion. I try to say as much as I can verbally, but I find that I am so much more effective with the written word. I try to defend the dignity of all human life with my actions instead. I find that when someone who is reasonably intelligent spews pro-abortion rhetoric, my disappointment is so great that I am overcome by too much emotion to make the best argument. It just breaks my heart. Therefore, I try not to engage in discussion with those close to me. I try, instead, to make positive, life-affirming remarks in their presence – things that they know that they cannot argue against – because they are true and they are beautiful. For example, I might show them a picture of an ultrasound and say, “Look, here you can see the baby’s hand. Isn’t that amazing? Look at how perfectly formed this baby is at even 10 weeks! Isn’t that incredible?” They know that they can’t argue with that, so they don’t.
Julie, you are indeed effective with the written word.
(Even from an old pro-choicer) that was an excellent post.
A pro-choice bumper sticker could read something like this;
“Choose life or choose death it is your choice and I am pretty much gonna be just as happy whichever choice you make so relatively speaking why should I care anyway?”