It's really all about abortion for the GOP base

Yesterday, I wrote a diary that wondered why Republicans were so loyal to such a nakedly corrupt, immoral man. I went to bed, woke up, and it finally hit me. It is all about abortion for them. For 50 years, they couldn’t do anything about it. Then this promiscuous charlatan comes along and beats Hillary Clinton. Just as the sinking of the Titanic was a miracle for the lobsters in the kitchen, Trump’s victory looked like divine intervention for those who think God cares about US politics.

Since I’m a man, I’ve had the luxury of taking my time to come around to the realization that a fetus only matters if its mother says that it matters. Abortion can be a unpleasant subject to think and talk about, so that’s why a lot of people come to the wrong conclusion about it, even if they aren’t particularly religious.  To be sure, there are atheists and agnostics who oppose abortion too, (and whatever their religious beliefs are, their secular belief that abortion should be illegal is still wrong.)

So if you are a person who sincerely (but incorrectly) believes that abortion is murder, that can float to the top of your political priorities. You can rationalize anything, including violence, if it causes fewer abortions to take place. You stop caring about things like the economy, the justice system, and national security. Everything else can be dismissed as a distraction, or be exploited in order to distract others.

Consider the topic of vaccines. If you care about fetuses, then you should care about the health of pregnant women. Maybe you might not support vaccine mandates, but you still might be making PSA’s about how pregnant women should consult with their doctors about vaccines, and how the rest of us should get vaccinated to protect pregnant women.

Except now there is a huge overlap between the anti-vax and anti-abortion crowds. The common factor is a misunderstanding of biology, and a weaponization of that misunderstanding.

Trump gave the anti-abortion crowd three Supreme Court justices. No matter how delusional they are about everything else, they know that TFG played a role in overturning Roe V. Wade. They would follow him off a cliff for that alone. If we can win the debate on abortion, then that guts the GOP base. 2024 could be a fun year.

Why I'm not going to watch that video

I'm not going to watch your video. You aren't the first person I'm saying this to, but you won't be the last either so I'm writing this so I don't have to repeat myself. Don't be deluded into thinking that you won our little Internet debate. Feel free to think that I'm just a tool of the corporations, the Deep State, or whoever you think the bad guys are. But I bet you are never going to watch all of the January 6th Committee hearings either.

I already have a pretty good idea of what the video is going to say. Maybe it might have something that I haven't heard before, or maybe this a Rickroll or whatever the kids are doing these days. Even if that video is the only way to learn the secrets of Life, The Universe, And Everything, those secrets shall remain unknown to me because I will not watch that video.

You could type out what relevant facts are in that video, and I might read them. But I suspect your real goal is to increase the viewcount of that video and help the people who made it. Or maybe you knew I was going to refuse to watch that video, and you want to be able to say that I'm biased and closed minded. Maybe you're closed-minded because you think everyone who doesn't have time or cellular data to watch your video is closed-minded. Why don't you go outside and touch some grass?

As I am typing this, I have the day off. And obviously my Internet works. Now would be a very convenient time for me to watch videos. But I'd rather be watching Star Trek and writing this than watch your video. Maybe that's a poor use of my time, but suggesting videos to me is an absolute waste of your time, because that's just not going to lead to a desirable outcome.

I have watched a LOT of videos before I wrote this. Far too many of them contain a Gish Gallop. They say a bunch of things that sound like facts because they have big words and statistics. But you didn't bother to double check any of them, so why should I bother to hear them in the first place?