Never has someone caved so quickly to so few for so little.
I speak somewhat belatedly of the post in The Fifth Column the other day titled "Why I Am Pro-Choice". It delved into some of the grisly and counterproductive tactics of the anti-choice movement; their violence, over-the-top rhetoric and gory graphics shoved in the face of anyone within reach. Predictably, the blog was set upon by anti-choicers who spat out some insults, cried a little, lied a little... and were immediately rebutted by the blogger. What?! Oh wait...
No, not a word of rebuttal. Instead of taking the anti-choicers to task for arrogance and ignorance that any progressive would be at odds with, The Fifth Column decided on a compromise with them in his next post, "The Ugly Side of Pro-Choice". The intention of the follow-up post was to show that as bad as anti-choicers are, pro-choicers are equally depraved with our inflammatory rhetoric, gory graphics, doctor shootings, medical staff stalking, and clinic bombings... err... what? Whoops! Nope, guess not! With all the feces they throw at us, the most unthinkably vile thing we do in return is to use an "uncivil" but humourous term -- "fetus fetishists" -- to describe the rabid authoritarian dingbats.
Well, boo friggin' hoo. Our right to conduct our reproductive business as we see fit is attacked on a daily basis, both verbally and physically, by anti-choicers. Apart from the stalkings, shootings and bombings, you want rhetoric? They got rhetoric coming out of their assholes: "pro-abort" (everyone must abort! Abort! Abort!), "murderer", "baby-killer", "culture of death" fer gawdsake (SHRIEEEEK!), and a medical procedure referred to in all seriousness as a "holocaust", to name just a few. And the difference between us and them is that they are serious.
To infer that our use of humour is the equivalent of incendiary anti-abortion rhetoric that sometimes spins into violence is a grave error and insult to those who man the barricades in the pro-choice movement. All things considered, the fact that we have any sense of humour left at all should be considered a good thing.
I'm all for dialogue when it's possible, but The Fifth Column was reaching for middle ground where there is none, and in doing so managed to insult those he claims to be allied with. We don't ask for absolute, unconditional toeing of the line, but we do expect that our pro-choice allies at least try to understand the difference between our defensive use of humour and the raw sewage anti-choicers fire in our direction daily. Insinuating that we're no different from them, or that we "trivialize" pregnancy with our use of humour, starts to sound an awful lot like someone who talks the talk but gracelessly caves when faced with any opposition. That's not how you fight authoritarianism: to acquiese to such people is not an option.
Let 'em howl.
And another thing. What she said.But the last word goes to Dave.
(h/t fern hill at birth pangs)
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