[freebuju]

It may be too late to have the kind of conversations you are envisioning with young people raised in this generation. They have conjured up big words and terms that don't even mean anything in the practical sense and will easily take offense with anything or anyone about whatever values they strongly identify with.

This is the generation that needs (and sometimes demands that) their spaces online be protected from any ideas that are divergent to those they subscribe to.

[causality0]

That's one of the more depressing parts. Even the people I agree with never engage with the actual argument of their opponents. For example, I'm pro-choice. The people who are anti-choice believe that abortion is the murder of a child. The people who agree with me, however, never engage with that argument. They just point out ways in which the anti-choice people are sexist or otherwise hate women. Similarly, the anti-choice people refuse to engage in discussions about body autonomy. A similar pattern is reflected in almost every other contentious political issue. Factions don't argue with each other, they just talk at right angles as loudly as possible.

[freebuju]

Strange observation indeed. Must be difficult to live in a world where everything is black or white to you.

Is body autonomy absolute when you have a living organism inside of you? Is the "hate for women" justified for the sake of saving life? Is life even that important to us if we can allow a pregnant woman to arbitrarily take it? If so, what is our definition of life then?

Excuse my little tirade. I love the age-old abortion debate:)

[causality0]

Must be difficult to live in a world where everything is black or white to you.

Oh hardly. I'm of the least-popular opinion, that intelligent human minds are what make people valuable and that the death of a newborn isn't significantly different from the death of a fetus.

[freebuju]

> death of a newborn isn't significantly different from the death of a fetus

Sounds like you are trying to quantify (the value of) life. What about mentally handicapped people, are they deemed not valuable humans in your eyes because they are not intelligent?

Am pro-abortion in extreme cases involving rape or abuse. But am also anti-abortion and pro-life. Not sure if there's a category for people who hold this idea.

[causality0]

The real-world error bars are quite wide because of the impact of moral character on a person's value, but sight unseen I would give the last seat in the life boat to the non-mentally-disabled person almost every time, yes.

Am pro-abortion in extreme cases involving rape or abuse

See, now that's a viewpoint I don't understand at all. The question of whether or not killing a fetus is killing a person is not affected by the circumstances of that fetus's creation.

[freebuju]

A life isn't really that simple to define but yes. There are many "sins" external to the creation of life that warrant consideration of carrying a pregnancy to term. Some of them include inbreeding. At that point am okay with letting the society or the creators decide on the baby but am a bit more liberal on life created as a result of violence or psychological manipulation.