If there ever a spirit animal for him was...

[monanotlisa]

linaerys says it not like it is but as it should be:

I am getting really freakin' tired of hearing how we should respect Rick Santorum for the consistency of his beliefs, even if we don't agree with them. This is usually said by progressive men and is about his views on sexual behavior. (I refuse to call it sexual morality.)

I don't care if his views are consistent when they are also evil. Hating gay people is evil. Forcing a woman to carry a non-viable fetus to term is evil. Forcing a woman to bear a child of rape or incest is evil. Forcing someone to go through an unwanted pregnancy at all is evil. I would rather a little less consistency and a little less evil.

I think Mitt Romney has the soul of a garden slug, but his inconsistency means that occasionally the wind that blows him around takes him somewhere positive.

Give me inconsistency or give me context! QWP.

Comments

[redbird]

I would add that Santorum and his ilk don't respect me for the consistency of my beliefs. They aren't getting up and saying things like "I disagree with P. Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins, of course, but I respect the consistency of their anti-religious views and support for the teaching of evolution." Dare I ask why it's only right-wing, theocratic, misogynist, racist, and anti-gay beliefs that get praise for consistency?

Tolerance means I admit they have the right to think and even say those horrible things: it doesn't mean I have to respect them for hating me all the time instead of only part of the time.

[lexin]

Word.

And I love your icon.

[redbird]

I picked that icon up from someone ages ago; help yourself, if you want to use it.

[lannamichaels]

Dare I ask why it's only right-wing, theocratic, misogynist, racist, and anti-gay beliefs that get praise for consistency?

They control the narrative and so enjoy patting themselves on the back when they feel threatened. It's the same reason people pat themselves on the back for being "brave" when they defend the status quo.

[ideological_cuddle]

Perhaps Things Are Different In America (my American friends keep telling me so with respect to all sorts of things that are completely non-controversial in the civilized world but somehow a Big Deal over there) but typically the people who are willing to respect the rights of others to hold differing views from their own are not the theocratic misogynist racist homophobes.

Those folk generally do not respect the right of anyone to hold a contrary view. They have a burning conviction that they are right and everyone else is going to hell.

[tree_and_leaf]

True. But the other thing that pisses me off when people say that is that in any case, he's not consistent. If he were, i.e. if the driving force of his political beliefs were his Catholic faith, then he would oppose the death penalty, be in favour of unions, and generally a good deal more economically left-wing, because those are part of the social teaching of the Church, too. He picks and chooses about church teaching just as much as any Catholic progressive, if not more so.

[lannamichaels]

I can understand the view of people who are always against abortion in all cases, because that's consistent. I cannot understand the view of people who are against abortion except in certain cases, because wtf. And I really can't understand people who say life is sacred so no abortions, while being pro death penalty and opposing health care and early childhood education and overall helping people live in this world. That's not consistent, that's taking your politics and slapping a religion label on it as a shield to say people aren't allowed to say anything about it.

[marahmarie]

Hear, hear. Exactly.

(Personally against abortion, but I'm for birth control, which this freak also wants to, I don't know, ban or something - and fuck that - also, the new thing about wanding into you for an ultrasound before an abortion can be performed? I'm not too down with that either, despite my views - it's like saying, "We need to pass laws that require you to get raped in a doctors office before you can abort", which is also like saying, "Human rights abuses are fine - if we say so"). He's the most anti-woman candidate I've ever had to lay eyes on.

[ideological_cuddle]

Eh. It can be perfectly consistent to have a problem with abortion but not with the death penalty.

Not saying I agree with that position, but declaring it automatically inconsistent is a bit simplistic.

(Raving commie by American standards.)

[owl]

Yes, exactly!

[vass]

Yeah, this. Also he was in favour of invading Iraq, when the Pope and the bishops were not.

[marahmarie]

I am getting really freakin' tired of hearing how we should respect Rick Santorum for the consistency of his beliefs

Anyone defended in such a fashion has problems. You can't tell people to or make them respect someone else; they either just do or don't. Arguments aren't convincing in this case.

I especially have problems with "respecting" anyone who has no respect for me or mine. The minute anyone starts promising that if he gets elected he'll make laws so him and his like-minded cronies can disrespect my body and my wishes, they can go fly a fucking kite.