l3wis at the liberal South DaCola features a cartoon caricature of Leslee Unruh, the head of the Sioux Falls Alpha Center and VoteYesForLife.com. The cartoon Leslee is holding a copy of a "More" magazine which recently published a very lengthy hit piece on Leslee, and the cartoon is saying, "I want to criminalise a woman's right to safe and legal abortion...Even though I benefited from that right."
For one thing, I think Leslee would be the first to tell you, she definitely did not "benefit" from that right. In fact, there are a LOT of women who have had abortions who will testify that what seemed like a "benefit" in a moment of anxiety turned out to be a lifetime of hurt and regret.
But despite l3wis' mockery of Leslee's experience, there is an even deeper issue which is misrepresented here.
l3wis makes the same mistake (or omission of logic?) that liberals predictably do in their never-ending efforts to justify immoral behavior. He professes the assumption that if a person makes a mistake or does something wrong, they can never, ever speak out against that mistake. To do so would be to commit what is really the only sin liberals recognize: hypocrisy (or the perception of it).
I think most liberals realize, even if only deep down, what they're doing. Their conscience indicts them for supporting an immoral practice, and does so even more strongly when someone who has been there reminds them it's wrong. But rather than make the appropriate response to the prodding of conscience, they refuse to admit they were wrong and look for ways to dismiss the message.
The best way they can come up with is to label the one providing the warning of experience as a "hypocrite."
Maybe I'm the one who's totally off my rocker here, but I always thought that if you made a mistake, it was a good thing to warn others about it. I always thought it almost seemed like an obligation of human decency to warn another person if you saw they were about to make the same costly mistake you once made. In fact, it seems to me that a person who has already made the mistake is probably the most qualified to speak to the danger.
After all, what would we think of a person who knew a bridge was unsafe or out ahead, yet did nothing to warn people driving down this road?
What would we think of a person who knew that a certain lot number of bottled water had been poisoned by terrorists, yet watched people buy bottles of this poison and told them, "Drink up!"
What would we think of a person who knew that an appliance had a short in it and could electrocute a person if they used it, yet stood nearby smiling as an unwitting person turned it on?
What would we think of a person who took a new prescription medication that nearly killed them from the side-effects...yet said nothing to other people considering using the medication?
What would we think of a person who did illegal drugs and became acquainted personally with the harm they do and got off the drugs themselves...yet said nothing to others around them who were considering doing drugs?
Is it then hypocritical for a person who makes a mistake to subsequently warn others not to subject themselves to the same damage?
Or is it an act of kindness and concern for which they should be commended?
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Hypocrisy of Warning Others
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2 comments:
Splendid post! South DaCola just doesn't get it. I feel sorry for him.
Just doesn't get it, or just doesn't want to get it.
I feel sorry for the guy, too. We can disagree on issues, but folks ought to at least slow down enough to put their brain in gear before their emotions.
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