#78: Worst From Both Sides of the Assault YouTube Debate; Responding to Moral Relativism
Download | Duration: 00:44:09
We finish our discussion of the often terrible ways that both sides of the abortion debate have responded to the YouTube video of the assault at 40 Days for Life. Josh has a new tactic he uses with pro-lifers acting like jerks on YouTube, and he tells all in this episode. We also cover some basic dialogue tools you can use when responding to moral relativism. We've never covered that on this podcast before, but this is something pro-lifers come across a lot when discussing abortion, and you need to be prepared!
Note from Josh: WARNING - We're dealing with some very unkind comments on YouTube here. I'm going to say this episode would be a bit much for very young listeners, after the Link of the Week break. I bleep out cuss words, but still, parental discretion advised for those mom's listening around young children.
For further study:
- With Steve's permission, I relied heavily on his work on responding to relativists in this show, but we didn't cover all of Steve's work on the subject. However, Steve just posted a four-page analysis, "Creating Dialogue on Moral Relativism" that sums up his work on the issue, that includes some sample dialogues very worth reading.
- For even more study on this issue, Greg Koukl and Francis Beckwith wrote a wonderful book, "Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air."
Link of the Week: Full-length abortion debate video with Stephanie Gray.
Tell us what you think!
- Call our new listener voicemail line to leave a message to be used in a future listener mail show: Call 559-477-4242.
- Email: Josh@ProLifePodcast.net, Liz@ProLifePodcast.net, Kyle@ProLifePodcast.net or Carrie@ProLifePodcast.net
Life Report is produced by Right to Life of Central California.
Click here to return to the front page of ProLifePodcast.net.
I think the "I've totally beat women" guy was just trolling you. Granted, if you banned him from commenting, that's probably the best response.
Reply to this
Hey Beth! Thanks for commenting. I'm pretty ignorant on the whole "troll" issue. Can you explain what you mean by that person possible being a troll, and what it is they said that would make you think that? I'm a bit behind on this part of internet debate, but I need to learn more about it now!
Reply to this
A "troll" is someone who, especially in an inflammatory or controversial topic thread, makes outrageous statements in order to provoke a response from the other persons in the conversation. Basically someone who is just pot-stirring for the sake of watching the pot be stirred.
As I said, the "I will do it, I have done it" bit was what cemented my suspicions (given that it is entirely possible to track down someone's location using their IP number, only an absolute moron would admit to a crime on the internet). But my alarm bells for this kind of thing started going off, though, when you mentioned they were purposely misspelling things like "Amerikan," and especially with the comment, "B***es who want to behave like men will be treated like men." I suppose, theoretically, you could draw some kind of gender equality argument out of that about, "Would a man have hesitated to hit another man for assault and an attempt to damage the equipment, or was the hesitation all down to her sex?" But, aside from making virtually no sense, what it does is derail the conversation, make everyone who reads it angry, polarizes the hot-headed members of both sides, and--if allowed to continue--calls a river of ad hominem attacks and name-calling forth from people on both sides of the argument. As to why someone would do that, usually it's just because they find it funny to watch people get worked up over an issue that they're not especially attached to.
Abortion is an issue, being as touchy as it is, that attracts a *lot* of trolls, and this guy sounds a lot like he's just looking to get a rise out of people without being interested in how or why. The standard response maxim is “Don’t feed the trolls!” With someone who is out only stir the pot, the best way to prevent them from doing so is not to notice or respond to them at all.
Reply to this