Stereotype much?
Such as? Capital punishment?
Where did this notion that conservatives are pro-war and liberals anti-war come from? Isn’t historically true, at least not in the U.S. WWI, WWII, and Vietnam at least were entered into or started by democrats.
I think you misunderstand American liberalism in its current day form. I would not characterize “anti-welfare, anti-handouts, and pro-gun” as generally accepted American liberal positions. Quite the opposite in fact. You may be confusing these with commonly held libertarian positions.
Somewhat. I don’t know how different groups of people are thought of where you are, but over here this
Is another one of those old stereotypes about liberals. It’s called “liberal guilt” over here, the thinking being pretty much what you state: ‘liberals are rich, privileged, educated people who went to the best schools and go skiing in Aspen or whatever you said, and they resent themselves for it, and as such seek to disadvantage themselves.’ There may be some people like that, but in general the idea is patronizing and silly.
See my response to Little Nemo above.
I think you misunderstand me. I’m not referring to people doing themselves down (quite the opposite, in fact, as one of my points is that “liberal guilt” is all inverted commas and no guilt). I’m referring to people doing down members of their own group. This practice I find to be unnatural and largely indicative of a mis-set moral compass.
I did see it. In fact, I quoted it in my response to you.
Your characterization of American liberals is far off base.
Alright, great. Now just back up these generalizations and you’re set. And rorty is correct that you seem very misinformed about liberals over here.
Hey, I’m sorry to refer you to my reply to NEmo’s post. I was getting all my antis and pros confused.
But, my point remains (“Which point?” will come shooting back no doubt!) According to what I have read (not least on this board), the understanding I have gained over 40-odd years, and the people I have met, the American liberal is quite a different animal from the British liberal. Of course, I’m dealing in stereotypes (generalisations has a nicer ring to it, but has much the same meaning), but we all do. At least, I’ve yet to met a single person who doesn’t.
But how do you guys respond to my contention that there is a tendency, especially among western middle class people, to do down members of their own group, especially, but not only, if the rewards for doing so (in terms for instance of reputation) are there?
I think people already responded to that…
Because it’s easier to change one’s own actions, if they are having negative consequences, than those of others.
A US liberal is by and large to the political right of a British conservative, let alone a British or European liberal. (Indeed, the word is arguably used in an utterly counter-intuitive in the US in the first place.) However, that is merely a consequence of the US being so vastly far to the right in general compared to the rest of the industrialised democratic world, which is why abortion and capital punishment are still debated so often there, when those arguments were put to bed five decades ago in the UK.
And to answer the OP’s direct question: a separate sperm or egg is human life which can be killed, just like separate daughter nuclei after conception and meiosis. Killing these human cells is not killing a human being, which war and capital punishment are. Conception is just as arbitrary a threshold of human being-ness as, say, 18 weeks or birth.
Incidentally, what the heck is a “fan of the UN”? Can I be a “fan of the world’s governments”? If I appeal to the House of Commons am I a “fan of all 659 parliamentary constituencies”?
Just as conservatives are not all uptight, old-fashioned people who live on lots of old money passed down from generation to generation and look down on those ‘tree-hugging hippies’ and pass their weekends at the country club. Sure, there are some like that, but not by any means all.
This is what we get for stereotyping people.