(no subject)

[danaeris]

Dear friends,

Wow. I don't follow lj-drama, but I wouldn't be surprised if I've been highlighted twice, yesterday, in it. It's amazing how you can make posts without the intention of sparking a controversy (although the response to the Curves post is less of a surprise than the response to the polyamory post).

For the record, for those who didn't see it in the comments section:
I apologize for using the term anti-choice to describe people who are pro-life. It was not a case of malicious forethought, but rather, a case of carelessness.

The abortion debate has been interesting, and I confess I've learned some interesting things which make me interested to learn more. I'm particularly interested in the current neuroscience associated with fetuses (is that the right word?).

As for the polyamory poll. Wow. I took the community off my default view a while back for a variety of reasons. I put out a poll because I was curious. I thought it would be amusing to see the answers. A number of people, strangers with one exception, took it as an opportunity to attack me.

To those people (some of which have decided to check out my journal), I say a few things:
(1) Get a life. If people want to take such a poll and be amused by it, great. If people want to look at the results, just like the results of any lj quiz or silly meme, great. Why do you care? (that's a rhetorical question; I'm not interested in your answer)
(2) Stop taking things so seriously. You act like this matters, but it doesn't.
(3) Take a page from the word polyamory and let a little more love into your life. Looking at the way you approached the situation, there seems to be a good dose of hostility and contempt in there. Would you respond with such vitriol in person? Or are you hiding behind the dehumanizing effect the internet can have to let loose, say what you really think, and assert your superiority in ways you wouldn't in normal social situations? (these are also rhetorical questions; I'm not interested in your answer)

I suggest that those of you who are looking to find a compassionate, intellectual method for approaching confrontation take a page from the velvety one, velvetpage, in the abortion debate. She was civil, polite, respectful, and yet disagreed without being dogmatic. I felt disappointed by humanity after all the crap I read in the polyamory community, but reading the abortion debate in my own journal at least somewhat helps restore that faith.

Comments will be screened; I'm not interested in seeing anymore venom in my journal today.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you. :)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

What was the problem with the polyamory poll???

Hope you didn't find your inbox too overflooded! (incidentally, do you have any IMs?)

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

A lot of the polamory community reaction to your poll can be explained by these series of posts: the Survey and the results. Check the dates on them and you'll have a much better understanding of the reaction to your own poll, and why it might have been interpreted as "attempting to tell poly folks who they are and what they want". Especially where people came to the conclusion that you were trying to prove a point rather than test a hypothesis. . .

[tshuma]

*hug*

I don't think an open debate about abortion can be kept from dogma, the two fit together like ducks belong in water. People are simply too emotionally charged about the issues.

Even if I believed abortion was wrong (which I do not) and as long as it remained a legal option as a counselor (this assumes my goal is to help people, not the agenda of preventing abortions), I believe it would be wrong to give one-sided, agenda-driven counsel. I would be doing the person a disservice to only present the options that were not offensive to me, however legally viable they were otherwise.

It is an interesting debate to me, only in that I am curious about the different points on which people hang their opinions. Also, it's interesting to see how various people measure sentience over human DNA, or human DNA over any other thing.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the debate(s) with us, and I'm sorry it ended by inundating you with invective.

Polyamory Community

[iceblink.livejournal.com]

There is a reason that I usually keep that particular community on the back burner. Anyway, I enjoyed your poll and I am sorry that people took it and themselves so seriously as to be catty and undiplomatic. It is certainly OK to disagree, but please do it with dignity.

Anyway, I am interested in the results - especially since I got a 290 and I am in the middle of dealing with acute illnesses (not to mention being bipolar II in general).

[lawbard.livejournal.com]

I just popped by and completely missed the previous post...but there is something I may be able to add. Last I checked, both pro-life and anti-choice were against abortion, the difference being that the anti-choice movement is distinguished from the pro-lifers because the anti-choice movement believes in the use of violence, up to and including killing abortion providers, to end abortion...whereas pro-lifers do not use or condone violence.

I don't know if that difference came out anyplace, because I've been offline for a week and have missed things.