YES, I'M ANGRY ABOUT THE PLANNED PARENTHOOD "CONTROVERSY"

I've gotten a couple of reports from facebook friends that a lot of my usual conservative commenters have decided to stay away from my posts for a while because of the recent rhetorical intensity of my usual liberal commenters. This fits what I've seen: my liberal friends, in fact, have been pretty intense regarding Planned Parenthood, and my conservative friends, who commented on my first post or two on the topic, are no longer commenting.

The sense I get is that liberal anger about this is perceived as unreasonable. I mean, even while conservatives freak out and rip apart their shirts over "the selling of body parts" or whatever--that's a hypocrisy I'll set aside for now.

But yes, liberals are really angry about this, myself included.

The important point to consider here is that these now numerous attacks on Planned Parenthood are not business as usual. Sure, liberals are always kind of angry about conservatives' ongoing attempts to oppress women by extending the government into their bodies, but that's been going on for years. To some extent, we're used to it. Pissed off a bit, sure, but used to it.

This thing going on right now, however, opens up brand new fronts for outrageous conservative sleaze. For starters, the videos catalyzing this latest right-wing freakout are crude fakes, and this was demonstrated multiple times by multiple sources within twenty four hours of the first video's release. But it gets worse: the organization creating the videos comes from a crowd of Nixonian-thug dirty tricksters who have been doing the same thing, and continually getting caught doing it, for nearly a decade. So you'd have to be a complete moron to take those videos as anything other than hateful bullshit. Of course, being a complete moron has never stopped conservatives from trying to get what they want. So they took their bullshit and went full speed ahead freaking out.

And it is a BIZARRE freakout: the actual issue here is the usage of fetal tissue for medical research, a practice which has helped cure polio among other things, but conservatives act as though they don't understand medical research as a concept or as if they just don't give a shit, probably the latter. They go on whining and moaning about "selling body parts" or whatever, totally refusing to discuss what's happening honestly.

And a lot of people appear to be taking them seriously. Just because they're yelling really loudly. The whole thing adds up to what is essentially a political sucker punch, followed by a dogpile. It's vicious, callous, evil bullshit, and because the entire fake "controversy" isn't driven by much more than fantasy, over-the-top self-righteous posturing, and resentful spite, calm and careful consideration of the facts appears to be utterly useless. The right-wingers have set the controls for the heart of the sun, and are dragging America along with them on their path to self-destruction.

So yeah, I'm angry. I'm angry because these are extraordinarily underhanded tactics. I'm angry because my preferred means of communication on politics, rational discussion supported with facts, has been momentarily rendered ineffective. I'm angry because rational friends of mine don't seem to understand that the Planned Parenthood "controversy" isn't like other actual controversies. I'm angry that what appears to be a large percentage of the population can be taken by such sleazy con games. And, needless to say, I'm angry that my fellow Americans who describe themselves as conservative want to control women's bodies, and are willing to lie and cheat in order to accomplish that.

That is, my anger, the anger of all liberals about this, is entirely justified. You started it, conservatives. So f'ing deal with it.

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