So, I saw a discussion online in which some pro choicers don't seem to understand what the right's game is when it comes to banning abortion, pointing out the obvious negative consequences to that like thousands of orphans or unwanted children being born, etc., and I feel like I need to really explain some of the differences between the left and right, as the left seems to be focused too much on practicality and consequences.
You gotta understand, pro lifers often come from a different worldview, with a different approach to ethics very much unlike our own. We on the left DO care about things like consequences and the like. The right...often doesn't.
The right tends to get its morals from "God" and divine command theory. Most people pushing the pro life perspective are fundamental Christians who believe at their very core that God is the source of all morality, that without God, we'd all go around doing "whatever we want", acting like we'd be in some Hobbesian state of nature if not for God and his commands, and they think, based on their interpretation of the Bible, that God forbids abortion. They do this often by taking Bible verses out of context, like the one about how God formed "you" (specific person) in the womb and blah blah blah. They think God has a plan for all individuals, that abortion interferes with God's plan, and that it's terminating a life, which is murder under God's laws. There's little point in trying to reason with these guys. This is their view. They think they are doing the right thing for God and that God's morality supercedes human morality.
As such, most of these people also aren't very interested in things like consequences. They aren't interested in things like "gee, this child might grow up unwanted, unloved, and contributing to the crime rate." They are just like "I guess you should've thought about that before having sex" (with them being judgmental toward the act too outside of marriage). Seriously. They don't care about consequences. We've known this for decades now. Remember abstinance only education? Data shows it doesnt work and most southern Bible belt states actually have higher rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs as a result. Do they care? No. Because to them "well you shouldn't have had sex". To them, morality is an abstract law established by God, and while there is arguably some logic behind it, they generally view morality as something to conform to, with humans needing to adapt themselves to these commands or laws, and failure to do so being to bring down judgment on themselves. They think if society allows "sinful" practices like abortion, or say, homosexuality, that God will smite us or something, and that we should do our best to conform to God and his morals.
And that's that. End of discussion. They don't care about consequences, they don't care about logic or reason. it's just "that's the law according to God, conform to it or be punished by him." Their whole worldview is based on religious authoritarianism and they want that to infect our government.
And before anyone asks (since I know some people will), yes yes, I know "secular pro life" exists, but let's face it, it's a project, mostly by religious people, trying to argue their perspective without directly appealing to god, and it kinda sucks. And no one is actually convinced by that. Well, maybe I shouldn't say "no one", but really, almost no one. Like that's the thing. it's one of those cringey "hello fellow kids" kind of things where they're trying to adapt their morals to another moral worldview, and it just kinda fails miserably and is awkward as a result. So yeah. Not big on it, i think I looked at the topic before, I really found no reason to consider it.
The fact is, abortion, and most culture war issues, ultimately come down to religion these days. Yes, postmodernism is making its force felt too, even in this issue with most SJWs being ardent feminists, but keep in mind, secularism walked so postmodernism can run, and while we don't always see eye to eye, we do have a common enemy in the religious right. You guys are just taking things a step further while seemingly forgetting your roots in secularism in the first place. But I digress. The point is, the big division from left and right is still over religion and tradition vs reason and consequentialism. And that's how I'd encourage people to view these kinds of culture war issues. You literally are dealing with religious zealots here. If these guys had a secular stance on the issue, you could watch this become an 80-20 or 90-10 issue overnight. Because I think the data is clear, I think the evidence is clear, and I dislike the idea of giving "both sides" equal credence here. I think that on most issues, the right is wrong objectively, which is why I don't really delve into their perspectives very often on this blog. Why deal with trying to untangle the views of a bunch of insane people? And as I said, when i DO go into it, I basically just end up writing an article explaining "yeah these people don't care about reason and rationality and evidence, they just have an overly dogmatic worldview based in religion that they don't care if they're wrong on, because from their perspective, they're right by default just by making an argument from authority."
So why spend more time than i have to dealing with them? Well, that's the thing, I don't. It's boring, it's intellectually unstimulating, I'd rather discuss topics that actually challenge me. But it is good to explain how the other side thinks because for all the left wing infighting we see between liberals, and leftists, blah blah blah, at least we're both based in some sense of reality and dealing with some sense of wanting what's best for people from a material and consequential point of view. The right...doesn't these days. It's literally just...God said so, therefore X. And abortion is no different. Seriously, anyone who actually cares about consequentialism and human well being should generally be pro choice. Even if they have a personal dislike of abortion, they should understand that banning it would be highly destructive and undesirable. Even I learned that before fully leaving Christianity, although that shift toward consequentialism in my mindset did have a lot to do with me leaving Christianity about a year later. Because I did understand I was going against the actual commands of the bible, and understood that my ethics were based on the real world and not just "God said so" at that point. And that tension in morality between what was right in front of my face and what a 2000 year old book said really did end up causing me to question the entire religion. Wasn't the only reason, it's never one sole reason, but it was a reason. And it's actually kinda common among former believers to go through that process.
But yeah I just wanted to explain it since a lot of lefties don't really seem to understand how people on the right think about things. It might seem irrational to us...because it is, but there you go. my best attempt to actually explain it.
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