Apparently, pro-choicers are arrogant, uncivil, closed-minded thugs, fascists and bullies who have no interest in allowing others the right of free expression:
Pro-life activist Jose Ruba is building quite a resume. He’s been shouted down at St. Mary’s University, shut down at York, and now he’s been sung down at McGill.
As the Canadian Center for Bio-Ethical Reform staffer tried to make a presentation at McGill this week, Ruba was greeted with a chorus of... well, choruses. He looked on and checked his iPhone’s facebook application as pro-choice protestors ran through song after song, hour after hour, pausing only to shout slogans or block his projector.
First there was ‘Yellow Submarine’, then ‘Wheels on the Bus’, and then Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. To be sure, no pro-choice demonstration would be complete without a performance of ‘Happy Birthday’ to abortion, and of course, a complete rendition of ’99 bottles of beer’.
Gosh, that was rude. Whatever could have inspired those folks to behave so badly? Oh:
Choose Life, McGill’s pro-life group, went ahead with the event, titled ‘Echoes of the Holocaust’, ...
Uh huh. Here's a thought, kids. If you claim that all you want to do is get your opinion across, then proceed to compare a perfectly legal medical procedure to the slaughter of millions of Jews, you really shouldn't be surprised if some folks are going to get a mite edgy. That's kind of what happens when you act like assholes.
I'm glad I could clear that up for you.
AFTERSNARK: I'm fascinated by how so many Jews don't seem all that outraged by this constant comparison between abortion and the Holocaust. Do they really not see the disturbing parallel that's being drawn here?
After all, in most sane discussions about abortion, even adamant anti-choicers are sometimes willing to admit that, yes, there are arguments that can be made for both sides and, yes, there are certainly situations that could call for an exception and, yes, no matter how much you might disapprove of abortion, it is after all a legal procedure at the moment.
Imagine the outrage if one used that kind of language with respect to the Holocaust -- sure, it was a bit of unpleasantness but, hey, there are arguments that can be made for both sides and, yeah, it's generally a bad thing to commit genocide on that scale but perhaps there are compelling exceptions, and so on and so on. Incendiary language, to be sure, but it's kind of the comparison that's being made here.
If Jews really don't want to minimize the horror that was the Holocaust, perhaps it's time for them to speak up a bit louder and protest this relentless and idiotic comparison. Because if they don't, then they have no one but themselves to blame if they start hearing things like, "Yeah, yeah, Holocaust, abortion, one's just as bad as the other, big deal, yadda yadda yadda, man, I'm bored of this."
And I'm pretty sure that's not a road down which they want to go.
BY THE WAY, as an example of the territoriality of the Holocaust, one need only note how incredibly defensive some people get when anyone else dares to use the phrase "Never again" in a non-Holocaust context. You know, like this. And this.
I believe my point here is obvious. A great many people get absolutely furious if you even remotely suggest that anything is comparable to the Holocaust. In their opinions, the Holocaust is the horror against which nothing else shall ever be compared, to the point where they've laid exclusive ownership claim against part of the English language.
If that's their position, fine. But if that's their position, then they have a responsibility to protect their territory against all usurpers. If, instead, they going to be carefully selective about who can and can't borrow the Holocaust for blatantly ideological purposes, then they're being hypocrites.
Further than that, deponent sayeth not.
9 comments:
No surprise that Tim Mak is also "writer" for the National Post and the non-partisan Libertas Post...
I'd have more respect for these goons if they were more honest and just said that they are authoritarians...
So... sort of like a variation of "where are the moderate Muslims to speak out against terrorism?"
Personally, I don't think Jews have any more of a moral responsibility to call out pro-lifers on the Holocaust rhetoric than say... the Pope does. And I'm sure he's preparing a speech denouncing it right now.
I don't think Jews have any more of a moral responsibility to call out pro-lifers on the Holocaust rhetoric than say... the Pope does.
sooey, I really fail to see your analogy given the Catholics position on abortion...
Sorry, sooey, but I don't buy your argument. Given that Jews have made an entire cottage industry out of sanctifying the Holocaust, it's their responsibility to call out anyone who is clearly trying to devalue its historical significance.
Otherwise, they're just being hypocrites.
Why are they being hypocrites? Because you say so?
I'm sorry (I'm really not) but Sooey's right -- Jews are no more morally obligated to speak out against this then anyone else who finds the comparison offensive.
This not a Jewish issue. It's just one more attempt by misogynistic, anti-choice panysniffers to sensationalize their "fight" to remove women's options.
Sorry, sooey, but I don't buy your argument. Given that Jews have made an entire cottage industry out of sanctifying the Holocaust, it's their responsibility to call out anyone who is clearly trying to devalue its historical significance.
There's certainly a legitimate reason for arguing this. There are plenty of Jewish people who object to all kinds of comparisons when it comes to issues of importance to them...PETA's use of the Holocaust in its anti-meat campaigns and the use of the word "apartheid" to describe conditions in the West Bank, for example.
Whether those Jews are obligated to stand up and object in this specific instance is a matter of opinion.
Given how stupid this culture is, in which the only histories people are vaguely aware of are those of Hitler and Stalin, it's likely a waste of time, since this kind of garbage is not going to end, anytime soon.
first of all it is the very definition of prejudice,cc, to call on "Jews" to come out against the idiotic behaviour of some prolifers and that if They don't then They are all hypocrites. Just substitute other groups like Blacks, Quebecers, First Nations, in place of "Jews" and see if you still think your thesis is anything else than rank prejudice, cc.
It is a pig's flying moment because I agree entirely with Ti-guy. There are Jews, like me, who do indeed others' appropriation of the Holocaust to advance their own agenda. I would certainly put the lowlifes at PETA and the various prolife groups in that category.
Personally I've never understood why they do so. While it may bring them additional publicity in the short term, it ultimately alienates the vast majority of people from the very cause they are trying to advance. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot.
Oh shut up, "Jews, like me".
Just substitute other groups like Blacks, Quebecers, First Nations, in place of "Jews" and see if you still think your thesis is anything else than rank prejudice, cc.
Although, I bet if this had occurred (and it does, all the time), Backseat would not even have noticed.
I don't know how arguing this is rank prejudice, though, except in the most trivial fashion in which people assume that entire groups of people would object to something in which they have the greatest stake.
We all do that.
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