Why do you care?

jethro081

Clandestine wrote: »

So you have empathy then it seems.

empathy and caring about something are not the same thing. Empathy is being able to put yourself in another persons position, and to understand their hardships through a proxy emotional state.

caring is another thing entirely. you can care about stuff you don't understand. you can care about things that you could never experience, whilst similarly you can emphatically understand another persons situation, and not give a solitary sh1te about it.

Grayson

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Even a week before the expected normal birth?

And a week after. babies aren't actually mature until months after birth.

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Without limits? Should a 17-year-old who just broke up with his/her BF/GF of a week be extended suicide rights?

I think the mopey cnut should.

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Why not all drugs?

Why not. Countries that did this generally appear to be better.

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Why shouldn't I, as a responsible adult, be allowed to own a gun?

Why shouldn't i be allowed to own a stinger missle or nuclear weapon?



See, you're not the only one who can troll.

Grayson

Standman wrote: »

You care because it distracts you from facing up to the fact that you have a boring and inadequate life.

Because people who don't care have a fulfilling life?

Honestly, i care. I think through things. I research issues because i don't want to have a half assed opinion. I've changed opinions when ne information is presented.

Most people are lazy & apathetic. They make excuses about how they don't have time etc.. The fact is that most people live in a small world that never expands outside of what they can see. And even then they don't notice what's around them.

biddybops

Why should you care?
Simple explanation and everybody has to sing along to:

"If you tolerate this, then your children will be next"

nozzferrahhtoo

errlloyd wrote: »

So surely I'd be better off just not giving a damn? I don't understand why I care?

Why do you care?

I could give quite a lot of answers to this but rather than write a novel I will stick to whatever the first ones that jump into my head are until I get bored writing....

Firstly I care because the issues you list, along with many others, do not have to directly impact me for them to be relevant to me. I am a man and care about womens rights... why? Because there are women in my life I do care about and I want them to get all their rights.

In other words it is about working towards forming the kind of society I not only want to live in myself but want those I care for to be able to live in. I do not give my seat to an old lady on a bus because I will some day be old myself and want a chair in return. No, I do it because I want to live in the kind of society where when my aging relatives and loved ones go out in the world THEY will be offered a seat on their bus. One way to _help_ build such a society is to act that way myself.

Secondly while the issues you list (and some you have not listed) may never impact or affect me directly... the kind of thinking and arguments related to them COULD also be applied elsewhere in issues that will.

For example I am not gay nor have I interest in using prostitutes and there is no sign I will end up doing either but some of the fallacious and bigoted nonsense people level as "arguments" _against_ such things are worth of confrontation correction all the same. When you realize that the "arguments" leveled against them boil down to little more than "I personally do not want / detest these things therefore no one else should want/have them either" you realize that that is a line of "thinking" that could infect just about any line of discourse.

Thirdly I am a firm supporter of the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and I think it worth defending on nearly any front. Since the arguments as to why being homosexual is immoral, gay adoption is harmful, abortion is wrong and so forth are not just poor but in fact non-existent then I see no reason to ban them or declare them immoral. Letting people get away with attacking such things is an affront to "innocent until proven guilty" in my eyes until such time as they actually manage to put together some arguments substantiating these views.

Human rights are worth defending as a whole, even the ones that have not and may even never affect me directly.

Ok bored now so will stop.

BlimpGaz

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

I am not gay nor have I interest in using prostitutes and there is no sign I will end up doing either but some of the fallacious and bigoted nonsense people level as "arguments" _against_ such things are worth of confrontation correction all the same. When you realize that the "arguments" leveled against them boil down to little more than "I personally do not want / detest these things therefore no one else should want/have them either" you realize that that is a line of "thinking" that could infect just about any line of discourse.

Thirdly I am a firm supporter of the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and I think it worth defending on nearly any front. Since the arguments as to why being homosexual is immoral, gay adoption is harmful, abortion is wrong and so forth are not just poor but in fact non-existent then I see no reason to ban them or declare them immoral. Letting people get away with attacking such things is an affront to "innocent until proven guilty" in my eyes until such time as they actually manage to put together some arguments substantiating these views.

Human rights are worth defending as a whole, even the ones that have not and may even never affect me directly.

Good post. Arguments against the likes of homosexuality and prostitution amount to sticking one's nose up in the air and up the catholic church's anus while simultaneously having it in consenting adults' business.

Legs.Eleven

Whether you agree with the OP has listed as things he's for and against (I don't think discussing them is relevant to his main point), he raises a very valid point when he questions why the government won't hold referendums on these issues and let us decide and sort them out once and for all. Here here!


Why do I care? Let's just say I care enough to get off my arse and vote for what I personally believe is the best for my fellow countrymen and women which include people close to me. It doesn't take a huge amount of effort to vote and it's the least I could do (if I still lived there).

mel1

You have WAY to much time on your hands!

nozzferrahhtoo

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

he raises a very valid point when he questions why the government won't hold referendums on these issues and let us decide and sort them out once and for all. Here here!

Agreed to a point, but I would add that these things should never be sorted "once and for all". Times change, people change, data changes. What people vote for today they may vote differently for in 100 years, 200 years or 1000 years. There are many issues (thought perhaps not all) that should be revisited periodically. I shudder at the thought that a vote or referendum today would settle any issue "once and for all".

TwoShedsJackson

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Even a week before the expected normal birth?



Without limits? Should a 17-year-old who just broke up with his/her BF/GF of a week be extended suicide rights?



Why not all drugs?



Why shouldn't I, as a responsible adult, be allowed to own a gun?

Why shouldn't you, as a responsible adult, be allowed legal, regulated access to drugs if you want them?

I Heart Internet

errlloyd wrote: »

I care a lot. I'm very liberal, I believe in abortion on demand, assisted suicide, gay marriage, gay adoption, legalised marijuana, decriminalised prostitution, strict gun control and closing the gender pay gap. But I am a male, non drug user, heterosexual, Irish national, and I can't imagine every wanting to use a prostitute or end my life early.

Yet every day I allow the fact that these things don't happen in my country annoy me. The truth is Ireland is FUBAR, and I don't need to tell after hours this, you already know. But the worst part about Ireland is that no matter how much democracy I get I can't vote for any of the things I talk about above.

FF and FG have a political duopoly, both are conservative and neither are willing to compromise. Neither party are ever even going to call for a referendum on one of the above, because they know the might lose. Both parties will purposely avoid democracy because they know they can. No one else in Ireland can call a referendum (except the president on a piece of law, but it's never been done).

I let this irritate me, I campaign to change it and I see people campaigning to change it, but the truth is even if all of those social policies existed as I wanted them it would have no impact on my life whatsoever.

So surely I'd be better off just not giving a damn? I don't understand why I care?

Why do you care?

What you're really saying OP is that you tick all these "liberal" boxes and don't feel any better. Don't feel part of the club?

Why do you list your views on certain controversial issues as if they're badges of honour?

Just make up your own mind, be good to people and get on with your life. Life isn't a competition to see who's most painfully "on-message" when it comes to the hot social topics of the day. "Look at me, i support euthanasia....like me!!!"

stoneill

I have high ethics and low morals - I care, but not enough to stop me staring at your boobies.

Ruudi_Mentari

Sure who cares about the, who's whens wheres whose what s knows weres and whys

Sergeant

I'm insufferably liberal.

Ush1

MrStuffins wrote: »

It's funny how you can say you're "liberal" and then in the same sentence say you want strict control of something.

Most people who call themselves liberal are in fact conservative liberals. They think they have liberal ideals but they are dead set on opinions on certain issues.

I Heart Internet

Ush1 wrote: »

Most people who call themselves liberal are in fact conservative liberals. They think they have liberal ideals but they are dead set on opinions on certain issues.

Most people who say they are liberal are in fact very conformist. They're conforming to what they feel is the "right-on" stance on various social issues at the time. And yes, you're dead right. They are "dead set on opinions" and against certain other opinions on certain issues.

errlloyd

I Heart Internet wrote: »

What you're really saying OP is that you tick all these "liberal" boxes and don't feel any better. Don't feel part of the club?
"

Interesting conclusion, but I just put them up there because they're issues I disagree with the status quo on. (except gun control, that was more an American context). Sure it wouldn't be worth starting a thread about frustration with the state if I wasn't first able to establish why I was frustrated.

I don't get people's obsession with the use of examples in the OP. Those items are all just examples. For the purpose of the thread I'm not interested in what people care about, I'm interested in why they care. Particularly if it doesn't effect them.

Now if you're suggesting I care about these things as I purely social tool so I can hang out with my liberal mates and smoke weed and throw bricks at leinster house you just don't know me. It is an interesting slant on it though.