Chris B's Open Salon Blog

The Case Against Gay Marriage & Motivated Moral Reasoning

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:12:00 -0500

I went ahead and read all of Jonah Goldberg's column about how gay marriage is sooo bourgeois. At one point he remarks:

I do not think that the arguments against gay marriage are all grounded in bigotry, and I find some of the arguments persuasive.

via www.nationalreview.com

Here's the thing. The main arguments against same-sex marriage are (1) the argument that it will cause some harm to society and (2) that the argument from nature against homosexuality. But, nobody has identified an actual harm that same-sex marriage is going to cause to traditional marriage or that gay adoption will harm children. So, it's not so much an argument from harm as it is an appeal to fear based on some perceived harm. And, the argument from nature has some seriously problematic assumptions and implies some pretty counter-intuitive moral conclusions.

I have a difficult time seeing how these arguments are "persuasive" after you look into them, even just a little. But, I'm pretty sure these arguments are not rationally compelling. The fact that the people I happen to run into give these arguments arbitrarily against homosexuals - rather than follow the logic of their own arguments in a principled and consistent way - that makes me wonder if their opposition to gay marriage is rooted in bigotry. Is it so crazy to think that it's probably the case that a segment of the population engages in motivated moral reasoning in regard to homosexuality?

'No Mosque for You!'

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 13:08:23 -0400

The Pastor from First Baptist Church Dallas appeared on MSNBC today to try and justify prohibiting the mosque at Ground Zero. He does not do a very good job.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

None of his analogies work. He paints all Muslims as violent fundamentalists. Lame. That's like claiming all Christians are retarded Bapitist ministers. I'm no fan of organized religion. But, we live in a free society where Muslims have just as much of a right to practice their mumbo jumbo as the Baptist preacher does. I think bigotry rather than any principled opposition is the best explanation of this kind of opposition to the mosque. What's the rationale for opposing the building the other mosques in different parts of country? We cannot say that it's offensive because they are too close to Ground Zero.

A Statement of Tolerance Provokes Hostility in Baton Rouge

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:07:00 -0400

A proposed statement of tolerance in Baton Rouge proves why the city has a long way to go until it is a tolerant place.

The sponsors of a proposed One Baton Rouge resolution expressing tolerance of the city’s gay population pulled the resolution from the Metro Council’s agenda Wednesday.

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker and Councilwoman Alison Casio said there was no point in going forward because they lack the votes to pass the resolution.
“It’s not going to pass,” Walker said shortly before the meeting. “We don’t have the votes. Let’s move on.”

You can find the text of the resolution and the opposition letter here.

The One Baton Rouge resolution had prompted heated debate, including an open letter to Mayor-President Kip Holden and the council signed by more than 50 local church pastors opposed to the resolution.

The open letter, published as a full page ad in The Advocate on Wednesday, called homosexuality a sin and said that gays should not be afforded “special recognition.”

The ad continued, “We believe you are being encouraged to press an agenda that has long-range implications. We plead with you to drop this agenda. It will divide good-hearted citizens whose consciences are offended by a resolution that is wholly unnecessary.”

The pastors claim the resolution will "divide good hearted citizens." But the rest of the article raises the question of whether these good hearted citizens are outright hostile.

Cascio said she didn’t want to see the hostile tone of some of the opposition play out in public at the council.

She said that type of debate would be more damaging to the city’s image than pulling the item from the agenda.

“For whatever reason, people just get fired up over this issue,” Cascio said.

The resolution was meant to recognize people of different sexual orientations as a welcome part of the community and that there was never any intent to confer special recognition to gays, she said.

The whole thing just makes you want to pick up and move to Baton Rouge, doesn't it? Essentially, this episode demonstrates that Baton Rouge is an intolerant place for people of different walks of life.

Leftism and Equality

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:07:15 -0400

What is the Leftist or liberal view of economic equality? I was reading a blog post by a conservative philosopher today where I came across the following description of Leftists.

Fetishizers of equality, leftists would rather have everyone poor and equal rather than tolerate inequalities that benefit the worst off.

Do you consider yourself a Lefty? Do you consider this an accurate or fair characterization of Leftism in America? Do you believe in this kind of economic egalitarianism or do you have something else in mind?

From what I can tell, Karl Marx didn't even hold this view. And, surely, if anybody is a Leftist it's Karl Marx, right? In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels write:

We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. All that we want to do away with is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class.

They reiterate the point a little later in the same section.

Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriations.

That doesn't sound like total economic equality to me. It sounds like they're against exploitation, but not like they are espousing a kind of economic egalitarianism according to which everybody receives and is limited to the same amount of money, goods, etc. as everybody else. So, is it fair to characterize the Left as "fetishizers of equality" or is that simply a straw man of Leftism?

The End of Higher Education?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:07:35 -0400

Over at InsideHigherEd.com they have a nice video of a professor offering some critical remarks about how Higher Ed is being transformed. Check it out.