extremists

[keryx]

Planned Parenthood sent me an email today about Harriet Miers' 'extremist views' being exposed, and it made me giggle, in a gallowsy way.

Was anyone really suprised [sure we're not happy about it, but were you really shocked?] to find out she's adamantly anti-abortion? I mean, hello - evangelical Christian! I'm sure there are evangelicals who are pro-choice, but it's not exactly the norm.

I'm a bit bothered by the disrespect that movements exhibit towards each other. Being strongly anti-abortion isn't any more extremist than my staunch pro-abortion position. 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.

Comments

[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.

[(Anonymous)]

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. :)

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

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

[keryx.livejournal.com]

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.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

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.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

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

[keryx.livejournal.com]

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.