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U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

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Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What - if any - is the difference between a riot and a protest? Whether people are being intentionally injured and property is being intentionally damaged/stolen.

> Whether people are being intentionally injured and property is being intentionally damaged/stolen. If this sufficient to revoke 1A rights, does it also apply to 2A?

I don't think that's sufficient to revoke 1A rights. I think the people who do those bad things should get locked up in jail, and any remaining actual peaceful protesters should get to continue protesting.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#262
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If guns will not protect you, why did Stalin, Hitler and Castro go to such lengths of seizing privately owned firearms?

The primary thing that keeps dictators in power is small number of allies, who help them control information (mostly the message "rebellion will be supressed"). Guns are only a tool, without the operators, they are useless. In contrast, democracy is protected by transparency, not guns. Guns are required only to the point where there are people who suppress transparency with threat of violence, which is usually only o…

There is no basis for the “usually only” assertion and distinction, either historically or in the future.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#263
post #233
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of secular arguments against abortion. I'm not sure why both sides are acting like this is an obvious question with an obvious answer. Abortion balances the life, health, and happiness of the mother against the life of the unborn fetus. IMO this is one of the most ethically challenging questions that we're still arguing about as a society.

>There are plenty of secular arguments against abortion. There are plenty of secular arguments for flat earth. It's not about the number of arguments, but about their validity. There are no secular arguments that don't depend on logical fallacies or invalid assumptions. >Abortion balances the life, health, and happiness of the mother against the life of the unborn fetus. And similarly when talking about forcing someo…

>There are plenty of secular arguments for flat earth. It's not about the number of arguments, but about their validity. There are no secular arguments that don't depend on logical fallacies or invalid assumptions.

This is a false equivalency. Flat earth is a matter of facts, not ethics. Further, you are taking the least charitable interpretation of my words. Of course I meant that there are plenty of _valid_ secular arguments.

>And similarly when talking about forcing someone to donate their blood, or part of liver for transplant we'd need to balance the rights of the forced donor and the rights of the prospective transplant receiver, right?

Yes, this is a common counter-argument. I first encountered this in A Defense of Abortion in the form of the "unconscious violinist". A more whimsical version can be found in Rick and Morty's second Interdimensional Cable. A common counter-counter-argument is that this situation differs from abortion in that the mother bears partial responsibility for the creation of the fetus, and thus owes it more than she would owe another random person. This is one of the reasons people get more outraged about restriction of abortion rights in cases of rape, as the mother had no volition and thus (by this logic) owes her fetus nothing more than she would owe a stranger.

Regardless, you may find that the right of the mother to bodily autonomy outweighs the right of the fetus to life, but not everyone will weigh the situation the same. We often agree as a society that one must help others if the cost to oneself is considerably lower than the value provided to others. For example, you are obligated (in an ethical sense) to provide water to a man dying of thirst as long as you have plenty. Or perhaps (more controversially), you are obligated to jump into a cold swimming pool to save a drowning child (if you can swim). Some argue that the temporary albeit serious inconvenience to the mother outweighs the life-long value to the unborn child in a similar manner.

>It's not only not one of the challenging ones, it's not a serious question at all. Modern ethics is pretty clear on reproductive rights.

The funny thing is that each side seems to think this, and that the other side is insane, naive, or misguided for disagreeing. FWIW, I am personally pro-choice, but I also think that if you cannot understand the other side's arguments, that is a weakness of your own mental model, not a sign that they are crazy or bad arguments.

I'm happy to talk more about this, as I think it is a genuinely interesting and challenging issue that remains unresolved, unlike many things that our society argues about. Another interesting unresolved issue is the ethics of punishment - I have come to believe that government punishment is generally unethical, but that's another post.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#264
post #263
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are plenty of secular arguments against abortion. There are plenty of secular arguments for flat earth. It's not about the number of arguments, but about their validity. There are no secular arguments that don't depend on logical fallacies or invalid assumptions. >Abortion balances the life, health, and happiness of the mother against the life of the unborn fetus. And similarly when talking about forcing someo…

>There are plenty of secular arguments for flat earth. It's not about the number of arguments, but about their validity. There are no secular arguments that don't depend on logical fallacies or invalid assumptions. This is a false equivalency. Flat earth is a matter of facts, not ethics. Further, you are taking the least charitable interpretation of my words. Of course I meant that there are plenty of _valid_ secular…

>Of course I meant that there are plenty of _valid_ secular arguments.

And I've responded there are none. And you've not been able to provide any.

>Regardless, you may find that the right of the mother to bodily autonomy outweighs the right of the fetus to life, but not everyone will weigh the situation the same.

Of course, in particular people who believe woman are not proper humans. And it just so happens that this is the view of Catholic Church.

>Some argue that the temporary albeit serious inconvenience to the mother

I don't think this line requires any comment.

>The funny thing is that each side seems to think this

Again, same as with any other fallacy, like flat earth.

>if you cannot understand the other side's arguments, that is a weakness of your own mental model

If you cannot understand flat earther's arguments, that's a weakness of your own mental model? :)

FWIW, I do understand those arguments. It's just that I also understand they are stupid and evil - because they flow from ideology which is stupid and evil.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#265
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are the loudest voices advocating for abortion bans, though? Of the legislators who write and vote for abortion ban bills, what is their reasoning and background? At least in the US, it sounds like the loudest of those voices are coming from a religious place, mostly from a Christian perspective. I'll grant you that it's certainly more than just "evangelical" Christians, but I consider that an irrelevant distinct…

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Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#266
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd be very surprised if there were zero atheists that were anti-abortion. Well, sure, there were _some_, eg both Hitler and Stalin have delegalised abortion in their countries. But I'm not sure if that's the kind of moral oracle that todays christian fundamentalists would like to remember.

Nat Hentoff was a more interesting and less inflammatory example of an anti-abortion atheist.

"Non-inflammatory" ways of fighting religious fundamentalism and fringe theories don't work.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#267
post #264
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are plenty of secular arguments for flat earth. It's not about the number of arguments, but about their validity. There are no secular arguments that don't depend on logical fallacies or invalid assumptions. This is a false equivalency. Flat earth is a matter of facts, not ethics. Further, you are taking the least charitable interpretation of my words. Of course I meant that there are plenty of _valid_ secular…

>Of course I meant that there are plenty of _valid_ secular arguments. And I've responded there are none. And you've not been able to provide any. >Regardless, you may find that the right of the mother to bodily autonomy outweighs the right of the fetus to life, but not everyone will weigh the situation the same. Of course, in particular people who believe woman are not proper humans. And it just so happens that this…

>And I've responded there are none. And you've not been able to provide any.

>>Some argue that the temporary albeit serious inconvenience to the mother [is outweighed by] the life-long value to the unborn child in a similar manner.

>I don't think this line requires any comment.

This is one of the secular counter-arguments to abortion rights. My apology, I misstated the direction of the "outweighed" part. A very simple and principled restatement: life is more important than liberty. I am not sure why you have chosen not to comment on the key argument in my post. Perhaps the outcome is so obvious to you that you cannot imagine another rational being who would hold the opposite view.

>Again, same as with any other fallacy, like flat earth.

Again, this is not the same kind of argument. You really seem to like to pick on flat earth, maybe because it's an easy target. Why not at least pick an ethical debate instead of a factual one? There are plenty.

>If you cannot understand flat earther's arguments, that's a weakness of your own mental model? :)

I was very curious about flat earthers, sovereign citizens, anti-vaxxers, 5G phobics, and other similar "alternative truthers" because I in fact cannot understand their arguments. The more I look into them, the more I have come to believe they are mostly afraid and feel out of control, so they seek something that explains, even if it's insane. I would in fact like to be able to simulate their mental states more accurately, but I'm not sure how to get there without the mask becoming too heavy if you will.

>FWIW, I do understand those arguments. It's just that I also understand they are stupid and evil - because they flow from ideology which is stupid and evil.

I dunno about "evil". That word has way too strong of a connotation. I'd say the typical ideology associated with pro-life people is very paternalistic. They feel that they know better than you what choices you should make. I don't appreciate that dimension of their ideology at all, but I see the same traits in a number of different circles outside of the American religious right. For example, I hold the somewhat radical idea that suicide is an extension of a person's right to self determination, but many others seem to think that they have the right to force a suicidal person to stay here against their will.

Re: U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr

#268
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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