Alsadius comments on Politics Discussion Thread January 2013 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: OrphanWilde 02 January 2013 03:31AM

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Comment author: Alsadius 16 January 2013 09:37:33AM 0 points [-]

One exemption to anti-abortion views I've seen expressed almost universally among pro-lifers is that abortion is okay if the mother's life is at risk(because at that point, abortion isn't murder, any more than an operation that kills one Siamese twin to save the other is). A lot of people try to start blocking out other exemptions for semi-random reasons, mostly because of the hemisphere fallacy, but the arguments are usually the sort of incoherent nonsense you only hear from politicians.

Comment author: ChristianKl 16 January 2013 11:53:23AM 0 points [-]

That's why it makes sense to give them multiple laws that regulate abortion and ask them to rank them instead of asking them for their ideal abortion law.

They will have to give you reasons about why they prefer one exception over another even if they would reject both exceptions in a perfect world. That usually requires them to reason in a way that's more than just reiterating talking points.

Comment author: Alsadius 19 January 2013 06:45:37AM 0 points [-]

Agreed, that seems like a good approach to teasing out details of a stance. (Most real people will just ignore you in various ways, of course, but if you can make them sit still long enough it's viable)

Comment author: ChristianKl 19 January 2013 11:49:31AM 0 points [-]

If you tell people that they are doing things wrong, they usually dont ignore you but get emotional about what you are saying.

If people just ignore you, maybe you are arguing against straw mans or otherwise not addressing the real reasons of why they acted the way they did in the past.