Wednesday, October 29, 2008

An Important Fact, Expressed Well

Could it be that Americans are rejecting the far-right Culture War? Could it be that they see through the tactical misinformation and manipulation of the "Culture of Life" and recognize it instead as a Culture of Lies? Even with a McCain victory the trend lines are obvious, the Culture War issues no longer resonate, especially with younger voters.

Let's be clear. I don't know anyone who would take away the right for a person to believe what they choose, to follow their faith, however they interpret it. The Culture of Lies is not about what the far-right believes or their right to believe it. The lies are about how they distort facts trying to impose what they believe on everyone else, taking away other Americans' rights in the process.

If you want to believe dinosaurs and man walked the Earth together 6,000 years ago, when the Earth allegedly began, go right ahead -- but let's not teach that in public schools. If you hold, as a matter of faith, that pregnancy begins at an unknowable moment of conception, most people I know will fight for your right to believe that, but will oppose any effort to impose that ideology over basic medical facts in public policy. If you believe that teens really will remain abstinent and thus need no knowledge of prevention methods, that may work for you, but to continue wasting $1.5 billion dollars on programs that don't achieve that goal, and actually put teens at risk, seems odd to many taxpayers. You believe that gay people "choose" to live a "lifestyle" that subjects them to discrimination, fine. You believe that women should not be allowed to make their own personal life decisions -- that's your choice -- no one is forcing you to use contraception, plan your family, have an abortion, or work outside the home. And at death, should you suffer from a terminal illness and want every possible technology and treatment to keep you alive, no one -- other than your insurance company -- would deny you your belief that only God can end life, no matter how much science you use to keep yourself alive. The question on the table is whether your personal, individual beliefs should apply to everyone else, regardless of their personal, individual and deeply held beliefs.

For a generation, the far-right has promoted the biggest lie of all -- that they are the ones fighting for individual rights, the ones whose values are threatened.


I am not sure I agree that the culture war is being rejected, but the divers behind the war are getting old and dying and as the writer noted, the youth of America, for the most part, reject this silliness.

Overall this article ask for our society to return to using reason not dogma to craft out national policies.

An argument that is one I eagerly embrace.

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3 comments:

BadTux said...

Overall this article ask for out society to return to using reason not dogma to craft out national policies.

Something which I can heartily endorse as well. As I continually am pointing out on my own blog, we need to ditch all this ideological BS and deal with reality on its own terms, doing what works without regard to whether it is "ideologically correct" or not. Ideology led to the downfall of the Soviet Union, and it got us into this current mess we have in the USA. It's time to tell the ideologues to take a hike, roll up our sleeves, and do what we have to do to resolve our problems regardless of whether a particular solution is "ideologically correct" or not.

- Badtux the Pragmatic Penguin

Jon said...

Exactly my friendf

Barry Shurett said...

Ideology.

Or in this case maybe idiotology would be the term to use.

While I certainly think that people have a right to believe that god clapped his hands and *poof* we all appeared suddenly, I also don't think that this particular idiotology belongs in the public schools.

The problem with the folks that want to bring dogma into the classroom is that dogma makes no concessions for argument. There is no debate allowed. Academia requires debate.

But most of the people that are supportive of such causes don't want to debate it because their minds are made up. So, don't confuse them with facts.