Daily Kos’s Epic Fail
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/31/737368/-More-proof-that-its-anti-choice,-not-pro-life
I don’t usually read the Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, and other liberal blogs; I’m just not masochistic. My argumentative side goes crazy when I read stuff like that, and I just don’t have the time to respond to people who probably wouldn’t listen anyway. The above article, however, deserves some sort of response.
Satchel Robinson, the writer of the above article, attempts to generalize about the pro-life movement from the specific act of the murderer of Dr. George Tiller, and this is where you basically don’t have to read any more of the article. Robinson commits one of the most egregious acts of illogic so often perpetrated by political punditry, both left and right, which is to apply the actions of a single individual of small group of individuals to a larger group.
I am quick to point out that the right often does the same thing. There have been plenty of left-wing terrorists (Bill Ayers, for example), yet it would be absurd to say that every liberal is violent and wants to blow up the Pentagon.
What’s interesting is that Robinson contradicts himself. He essentially blames Bill O’Reilly for influencing the murderer (who, by the way, Robinson never mentions by name, as if the name doesn’t matter because, in Robinson’s view, he’s just a stand in for every pro-lifer) while criticizing Bill O’Reilly’s criticism of music, video games, and the internet as influences on youth violence.
The problem here is that you can’t have it both ways. Either we’re blaming the “influences” or we’re not. Robinson rightly points out the ridiculousness of O’Reilly’s freak-outs over youth culture, and then immediately turns around and does essentially the same thing.
What I dislike the most about Robinson’s article is that fact that at no time does he actually blame the person who is actually to blame. A murder was committed. The murderer is entirely to blame. Robinson should quit trying to shift the blame wherever it is politically expedient. But, of course, liberals have been trying to mitigate individual responsibility for years.