Quote:
Originally Posted by AustinMike
Wow, talk about thinking in absolutes. Do you automatically assume that self-defense has to include killing the perpetrator? This should not need to be said, but a pro-lifer can defend him(her)self and his(her) family without resorting to killing. To think otherwise is unreasonable.
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Re-read. I never said EVERY self-defense case requires lethal force. I have even said very much the opposite in this thread. Some cases do. I said that in such an eventuality, a pro-life person is not hypocritical.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AustinMike
I know what the terms mean to me. Pro-life is a term people who are opposed to abortion like to call themselves in an attempt to take the high moral ground in the abortion debate. They want to claim abortion is murder and therefore they are "pro-life" in opposing abortion. They also, like Peter has done repeatedly, call people who are pro-choice, "pro-abortion." That's a pejorative term they like to label the opposition, again in an attempt to frame their argument in a more favorable light. But, just because a person likes to use "pro-life" to describe himself in regards to abortion, it doesn't mean they are truly pro-life. A more accurate term for them is anti-abortion or even anti-choice.
The pro-choice vs. pro-life dichotomy doesn't exist. It's a made-up artifice perpetrated by people who are against abortion to persuade others that they are morally superior to people who don't have the same belief about abortion that they have. That is the plain, simple truth about pro-choice vs. pro-life.
I happen to be pro-life and pro-choice. Even though being pro-life and not opposed to the death penalty makes me a hypocrite, being pro-life and pro-choice does not.
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What it means to you is utterly irrelevant. If we all just decided what phrases meant for ourselves, human communication would be impossible. I am well aware all of you know the purpose of language. I am well aware that all of you understand exactly what pro-life and pro-choice means in the context of an abortion debate. How I feel about these phrases is entirely irrelevant (personally, I'm not a fan of them either). We all know what is being talked about no matter how much some of you want to pretend that you do not. Pro-life and pro-choice are opposing platforms on abortion. Stop pretending otherwise.
It's wild that we (others really, I gave no opinion on abortion itself) were having a very polite and civil discussion on abortion, and it's now starting to derail over people pretending not to know what the terms even mean. Usually it's the opinion on abortion that causes the fire, not the dictionary.
For those who claim not to know:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pro-life
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pro-choice