Black and white thinkers

conservatives. they tend to think largely in terms of absolutes. now don’t get me wrong, absolute values are important – by no means do i support moral relativism – but it’s necessary to recognize the many shades of grey involved in individual cases too. that is, after all, what situational ethics is all about.
i suspect that many of the conservatives i’ve met don’t recognize these gray areas largely because of their absolutist religious upbringing.

a few scenarios:
a nine year old girl, tragically, is raped and impregnated by her stepfather. what to do? according to the religious absolutist, abortion is, under all circ-mstances, 100% wrong. unless the birth is life-threatening, she can’t abort.

moderate: i don’t normally support abortion, but here it’s necessary.
liberal: i think abortion is a right that belongs to the mother. i would support her right to choose if this girl was nine or twenty nine, raped or non-raped. (although i would personally disapprove of it in the latter).
conservative: f-cking baby killers! it’s an innocent f-cking baby we’re talking about!
(as opposed to a non-sentient cl-ster of cells, lacking a nervous system and the ability to feel pain)

i had a much better example but the stupid character limit f-cked me over.

see my future definition, conservative black and white thinking disorder for that one.
i blame religion for turning so many conservatives into black and white thinkers.

and this is why i dislike religion – it so often stops people from thinking. if people were encouraged to think in terms of individual cases as opposed to coming to each and every unique situation with a preconceived bias (abortion is murder!)…well, i don’t know. we might have a better world. just maybe.