Why should I care?

[JustMeSee]

Yes, this is a homosexual and abortion thread!

As a heterosexual politically moderate non-theist male, who has never played a role in any woman considering an abortion, why should I care about these topics?

 

[cantata]

Because you have a social conscience?

 

[mpok1519]

bc the people around you wholistically affect you in some roundabout way or another.

 

[JustMeSee]

Because you have a social conscience?

Maybe.

bc the people around you wholistically affect you in some roundabout way or another.

The things is that I have no personal contact with anyone considering abortion or who is openly homosexual.

 

[DeathMagus]

Yes, this is a homosexual and abortion thread!

As a heterosexual politically moderate non-theist male, who has never played a role in any woman considering an abortion, why should I care about these topics?

Because ideals are important in and of themselves, rather than as simple instruments to be used for your own personal benefit?

If you don't agree with that, then there's absolutely no reason why you should care.

 

[mpok1519]

but you may have contact with someone who has contact with someone with someone who does; this affects you whollistically.

a butterfly can flap its wings in china and start a tornado in texas.....just an analogy

but there is nothing wrong with abstaining your opinion on the issues; infact there is sometimes something noble in it.

 

[JustMeSee]

Thanks for the responses.
I guess my question was really a broader question of why people care about issues that don't directly impact the self.

When I was younger, I often wondered why whites put their personal safety at risk to support the civil rights movement.

 

[jayem]

The things is that I have no personal contact with anyone considering abortion or who is openly homosexual.

But you do have a private life. I'm not at all suggesting that you do anything unusual or objectionable. But you have to agree that there is a sphere of private behavior into which government shouldn't intrude. The conflict arises because people don't agree on how large this sphere is--or even if it exists at all. (Beyond what's explicity stated in the 4th and 5th Amendments.)

Before the Lawrence v. Texas ruling, a state could criminalize the private sexual behavior of consenting same-sex adults. Theoretically, they could go to prison for what they did in their own bedrooms. Even if such laws were rarely enforced, do you think the state should really have such power? The issue of same sex unions boils down to sex discrimination. Can a state deny a legal privilege or benefit based on the sex of the participants? I think that violates equal treatment under the law without a compelling reason.

Abortion involves the issue of legal personhood. Another point on which the Constitution is silent. But privacy is also a major consideration. If an embryo is not legally a "person," then why should the state criminalize a medical procedure agreed upon by a pregnant woman and her physician?

The common denominator is both of these issues is how much power do we give to the state? Abortion and homosexuality are indicators of how someone views the role of government. Authoritarian or libertarian. That's why they're important. I don't think sex alone is a good enough reason to exclude a government benefit. I also think there is a right to privacy, which is not absolute, but is considerably larger than what's explicity stated in the Constitution. I might not like the results in all cases (abortion) but I think allowing the state to intrude in our personal lives is simply a worse evil.

 

[cantata]

Thanks for the responses.
I guess my question was really a broader question of why people care about issues that don't directly impact the self.

When I was younger, I often wondered why whites put their personal safety at risk to support the civil rights movement.

Empathy, I guess, is what makes me think about where the goods I purchase are sourced, for example, or whether same sex couples should be allowed to marry. (I don't intend ever to marry.)

 

[quatona]

I don´t plan to murder anyone, nobody of my close friends have been murdered and I don´t (and probably will never get to) know a murderer personally.
Why the heck would I form an opinion about murder?

 

[Maren]

The best answer I know of is this poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

 

[Mling]

Because the world around you is *your world,* and you have to live in it. If oppression exists, your world is oppressive.

If that's too abstract, then keep in mind that the oppression can turn on you, even if you're not affected, or even if you benefit from it, at the moment.

You may, for example, support obscenity laws that ban the production or sale of really, horribly revolting pornography (even though it is consensual and does not harm anybody). But...in supporting it, you set a precedent that the government can ban writing or art simply because it violates some people's taste. Should another group of people gain power, it is their taste that will become the standard. A person who supports the banning of defecation porn may well find themselves fighting to keep religious artwork, or violent movies, on the shelves.

 

[lawtonfogle]

Thanks for the responses.
I guess my question was really a broader question of why people care about issues that don't directly impact the self.

When I was younger, I often wondered why whites put their personal safety at risk to support the civil rights movement.

Because, at least for me, ignoring one point on the scale of right or wrong then lends me to ignoring the whole scale. How can I claim to fight for my right to something if I just ignores another's right to the same thing.

 

[Big Empty Circle]

A bit odd to lump the two together... hard to find two topics less involved with one another than homosexuality and abortion, since queer people are generally not in need of abortions.

No one can make you care about other people, but some of us see fit to fight oppression where we see it even if it isn't immediately affecting us. If you're shrewd enough to recognize that society not only unfairly oppresses some groups but by the same token unfairly privileges others (like men and heterosexuals, to both of which you apparently belong) it seems natural that a decent person would then feel obligated to use that privilege to try to address and change some of those disparities (like the challenge to women's authority over their own bodies, and queer people's struggle for equality in marriage and other arenas) even though you're the one benefitting from the patriarchal and heteronormative systems that create those issues. Like the way I'm privileged as a white person but am also an outspoken advocate for the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.