those who were seen dancing

Being strongly anti-abortion isn't any more extremist than my staunch pro-abortion position.

hmm, I disagree. Favoring the illegalization of something that happens quite frequently across the US is a pretty extreme position, not at all comparable to favoring greater access to a legal procedure.

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I disagree with your disagreement. :) In the context of this culture, I think the on demand/without apology/no different from contraception stance is a pretty extreme position, or at least it's certainly greated as such by the not-staunchly-pro-choice people I talk to.

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But judicially, the pro-choice "extremists" have a lot more precedent on our side. How many abortions a year? And the legal fights tend to be about smaller subcategories of abortion. To ban it overall would be a pretty big shift. (I also think that "extremism" tends to have a more specific meaning when it's used in terms of judges, especially SCOTUS. We may have outside-the-mainstream views but we are not in a position to use them disruptively. Unfortunately!)

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cutegaychick.livejournal.com

I think pro-life vs. pro-choice positions are only extremists if you take them to the extreme. Being staunchly anti-abortion isn't extremist -- shooting abortion doctors is. Believing that women should have control over the lives of their unborn children isn't extremist -- believing that they should have control over the lives of their already-born children is.

We're smart people -- we can determine shades of gray. It isn't all black and white.

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Also, what's going on with your jack o lantern's head/hair?

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It's broccoli. :-)

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cutegaychick.livejournal.com

I think we should take her. The people we think of as extremists are calling her a liberal. If the conservatives don't like her, I think it could be a lot worse.

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I bet I could take her.

Possibly not what you meant...

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I bet I could take her, too, although I doubt the administration would really set up a fair fight.

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Did you hear the NPR report comparing the opinions of conservative non-activists to the conservative anti-abortion leaders in DC (on Miers, that is)?

Basically, DC folks who've been hoping to stack the court are upset that she's not going to be forceful enough in the short term to change things, not that she isn't ragingly conservative - she's just not experienced enough to be ragingly conservative in a way that really keeps the court from paying attention to the constitution & stuff. Something like that.

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begraven.livejournal.com

I love the icon!

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Thank you!

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begraven.livejournal.com

Extremists are scary. They actually care enough about something to take a stand and do something *gasp*

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mellowtomysoul.livejournal.com

i agree that extremist's may be the wrong word. terrorists and murderers is much more appropriate. and honestly, i feel like anything that can discredit them is only a positive thing.

but then again, i get to see the faces of guilt and shame that these people put in my clients faces and i know what it's like to have to turn patients away because of the fucked up restrictions these "extremists" have made law.

and i personally think she sucks cause she's trying to take away my job! ;)

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hope-persists.livejournal.com

Calling someone "extremist" is just a means of discrediting them, and it shouldn't be. Extremists make change happen; they're visionaries and activists if you agree with them, after all.

word. this is the way i feel about the word radical, too.

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I'm on the fence about "extremist," but I love the word radical and embrace it, regardless of how my opponents may use it to discredit me. For instance, in the case of feminism, it describes an actual school of thought - it doesn't, contrary to the ravings of conservatives, mean merely that radical feminists are louder, hairier, or gayer than other feminists (though some of us are that, too, which is also great). It can't be used as an insult against me, because it's accurate. :)

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I have no idea how I managed to forget to log in just now.

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hope-persists.livejournal.com

oh totally (on your anon comment). it is totall accurate. most of my problem is with our side using it to discredit the right wing. if it's something that we take and embrace and love to use to describe ourselves, than i don't like that we see that the same brand of fire is seen as so negative on the other side.

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I tend to just use "rabid" to describe the other side. ;)

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I HEART the word "radical". When people use it "against" me (meaning I'm "too involved", I guess), I embrace it - like HELL YEAH I'm radical (although in the sense of actually being a Radical Feminist, I'm not entirely).

Extremist, though, people use to mean "raging maniac", and I think that's disrespectful in the political domain.

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although in the sense of actually being a Radical Feminist, I'm not entirely

I come down somewhere between Socialist and Radical, but I'll answer to either one.

I think extremist works in some cases, though I haven't worked out for myself whether Miers is one of those cases. I have no problem with the title being assigned to people who seek to implement an extreme position - like, no one should be allowed to have an abortion. I don't know if there's a comparable pro-choice position, since all we're doing is attempting to maintain a legal right that we've had for quite some time.

I guess it works for people who would advocate mandatory abortions/birth control/sterilization for poor women or teenage women, too. In that case, I would be using it as a descriptor to make damned sure no one confused me with them.

(deleted comment)

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There is a serious amount of LJ synergy happening today, and it's FREAKING ME OUT!

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I think an anti-abortion extremist is anyone who does or advocates violence against the other side. Is there any equivalent to that on our side? I could see the forced-birth or hypothetical forced-abortion people as extremist, too - being confronted by an actual living person and making them do what you tell them by force is pretty extreme.

Someone who just thinks abortion is murder, and wants to legislate that - well, I think they're massively misguided, anti-woman & wrong, but their position isn't that extreme given the cultural context, I guess. It's conservative, but it's not way out in right field.

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sonicage.livejournal.com

I disagree too. Not that it really matters. But I think the pro-life movement is extremist by definition because it seeks to completely outlaw abortion. There are very few in the pro-abortion movement that want to institute laws that force abortions on people. The majority of the pro-life movement explicitly wants to force people to have babies regardless of the circumstances.

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