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I've noticed in the short time I've been a member here that, although I agree with 90% of what is said, there is often a great deal of exaggeration and "the next thing ya know" arguments that ultimately do not serve us well.
When we hear the other side say, "Oh sure, let's let men marry men - and then the next thing ya know, men will be allowed to marry sheep!," we immediately think these people are very close to being mentally retarded.
Yet in the past week or two, I've read several similar arguments on this board. First it was the Scott Peterson verdict - "he was convicted of killing TWO people - the next thing ya know, Roe v. Wade will be overturned!!!!" This is a stupid argument. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other, and Scott Peterson is hardly the first person to be convicted of killing two people because he killed a pregnant woman.
And then there were the numerous threads of today regarding the Freedom Initiative Act. "The next thing ya know, they are going to DRUG OUR CHILDREN!!!!" I went to senate.gov and carefully read the bill in question. Here's a snip:
(a) IN GENERAL- The Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Education, and the Attorney General, acting jointly and in consultation with the Directors (as that term is defined in subsection (k)), shall make 10 grants to demonstration facilities to implement evidence-based preventive-screening tools to detect mental illness and suicidal tendencies in school-age youth and to refer those youth in need of assessment or treatment.
It's quite a stretch to jump from that to the government forcing drugs upon our children without our consent. Does anyone here actually believe that even Republicans would allow that to happen???
I really believe that, as a rule, our positions hold water. We do not need to lie, exaggerate, come up with ridiculous conspiracy theories or jump to baseless conclusions. If we do, how are we different?
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