The State of Stupidity in America

First of all, an update on yesterday’s post: Looks like — despite having his story proven false — Duh-bya is sticking to his guns. Guess he figures he’d rather look like an idiot than admit to being a liar. I suppose this is what they (the omnipresent “they,” naturally) mean by the admonition that once you start lying, you’ll be lying for the rest of your life.

But that’s not what’s got my blood boiling today. No, on my way in to work this morning (well, this afternoon, actually, as I had to stay home to pay $635 for an air conditioner repair, which probably hadn’t done wonders for my mood), I saw a bumper sticker that just reinforced my impression of the immeasurable stupidity of (some) American people. Situated alongside about eight other religiously-themed decals (mostly inoffensive), sat this one: “U CAN’T B BOTH CATHOLIC & PRO-CHOICE.’ (I don’t know why the sticker-writer chose to drop the “YO” and the “E,” but I suppose it’s because they knew the folks who would actually display this sticker couldn’t spell.)

Now, obviously, I’m not Catholic, but believe it or not, I’ve got a reasonable idea as to the church’s stance on abortion. Think I heard something to the effect that they’re against it (could be wrong, of course — been known to happen). But the troglodyte who’s displaying this sticker obviously has no more ability to process logical reasoning than does a bucket of hamster vomit.

Pro-choice does not equal pro-abortion, and anyone who says they’re the same thing is either deliberately trying to confuse the issue (a favored tactic of the more militant wing of the pro-life movement) or an unbridled simpleton. The pro-choice stance is predicated on the belief that a secular government does not have the right to make individual medical decisions. That’s it. Sure, there are corollaries to that fundamental belief — the government cannot force a decision by withholding information, nor can it place unreasonable obstacles into that decision-making process — but even those are not agreed upon by all within the so-called “pro-choice movement.”

Now, is this bumper-sticker displayer as “bad” as the priests campaigning to deny communion to politicians who hold pro-choice views? No, but he’s certainly in the same fascistic camp. Those folks are just grandstanders trying to get their fifteen minutes, to advance their own “political” power. This guy’s just a moron.

It’s easy to understand how someone could be both Catholic and pro-choice. One can readily believe that abortion is wholly wrong, a damnable offense, and still hold that the government doesn’t have the right to take free-will decisions out of the hands of the people. Hell, one could even hold this stance while believing that doctors who perform abortions are committing murder, or that the women receiving the procedures are equally complicit in the crime. An extreme view, perhaps (and one that I do not personally hold), but the positions are not mutually exclusive.

See, what irritates me more about this is less the abortion angle — after all, the issue can be argued rationally on both sides — than the failure of logic angle. If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s irrationality.