Identifying The Factions

Hey Everyone!! :-)

I've got a little more of Alyce's adventure to share with you, today! Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from sci-fi satire novel:
"So, there is a side that is in the wrong, in this. There are people who wish to persecute women whose options are limited due to their financial constraints."

I nodded. "That's one of the end results, yes, and some of the people on that side seek that outcome intentionally, but not all of them. Some of them genuinely believe they are helping other people, though they aren't usually the people who are out screaming at women and trying to grab them as they walk by. Usually, people who act out of a desire to help just vote for laws and politicians that make life harder for women, instead of harassing them one-on-one, like this." I gestured at the exhibit.

Squid-boy cocked his head at me and gurgled in the back of his throat. "I believe you are correct, understanding this will require more than just explaining what's here. Please tell us about the different factions of people on the wrong side of this issue and what their arguments are."

"Well, this is where it gets a bit tangled. You see, there's a long and deeply entrenched history of misogyny in my country. A lot of it is based in the dominant religion, but not all of it. And a lot of well-meaning people act in ways that are misogynistic because it's what their faith says they should do. And, as we've already discussed, there's also a long and tragic history of discrimination based on race and on income level. And all three types of discrimination intersect in this issue."

"There are people who believe that life begins at conception and that God prohibits the termination of pregnancies because of this. Many of them claim this belief comes from their religion, though if you read their holy book you'll find that they're mistaken as it promotes the termination of pregnancies in certain circumstances. But most of these people pick and choose what parts of their scriptures to uphold and what parts to ignore based on nothing more than what they want to believe and what they find convenient, so arguing with them about it is pointless. It also doesn't do much good to point out that what their religion requires is only required of them, and that no one else is obligated to live under the restrictions of their religion, and that, in fact, our Constitution prohibits our government from taking a side in arguments of religion."

"Why would that be pointless? It seems that those are all perfectly rational and valid arguments to make," said Yax.

"It's pointless because most of those people have decided that what they believe is what God wants and you can't argue with God."

"That's…"

"Irrational. Yes, I know. As I've already told you, not an uncommon state of affairs for humans."

The big alien grunted but said nothing else.

"So, you have these people who are convinced they're right because they know what God wants and anyone who disagrees with them is on the side of evil, and that's one faction. Then you have people who have personal experience with terminating a pregnancy, either their own or someone's who is close to them, and it was a bad experience. And they want to prevent other people from going through what they went through. Unfortunately, these people invariably fail to grasp the concept that what they experienced isn't what everyone experiences, and even if it were, it wouldn't give them the right to take control of other people's bodies. And then you have the people who are just jerks who hate women and want to control them."

"That seems like a group with rather diverse beliefs," observed Squid-boy.

I nodded. "It is. And it doesn't help that the groups often overlap, as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, since misogyny is such a big part of so many people's religion, it's not uncommon for people who just hate women and who want to control them to use their religion as an excuse to make laws that persecute women. And since some of the people who have had a bad experience with terminating a pregnancy subscribe to a religion where their religious leaders tell them that terminating a pregnancy is a sin, it's not uncommon for those people to feel bad about terminating their pregnancy because of their religion."

"Self-fulfilling prophesy," murmured Yax.

"Exactly."