Normally, my twitter feed is a mix of replies to people I follow and hashtag suggestions for @midnight. I'm not much of an active tweeter, but occasionally I step in it. Yesterday, I came across one of those sponsored tweets from a company urging people to register to vote in order to protect their second amendment rights. Feeling snarky, I replied "Because you care about guns more than you care about dead children." Within an hour, my feed was filled with all sorts of bile with one guy accusing me of being a hypocrite for claiming to care about kids but being pro-abortion. Arguing about abortion is difficult enough; the constant misrepresentations and ancient talking points are a pain to deal with in long form, but in 140 characters it's downright diabolical.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s as a young Republican in the DC suburbs, so I toed the then party line of no abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother. After 9/11, my status as a non-Christian made me persona-non-grata in the Republican party. I used to use Reagan's line that I didn't leave the party, the party left me, but as I've watched the party swing to the right and as my own views have matured, I realize I would have left these guys anyway. What was once an opinion on abortion that had some exceptions for exigent circumstances has now morphed into a desire to not only ban the procedure, but to attack contraception - the very thing which would most effectively reduce abortions in the first place. In the meantime, I've come to realize that it's not my place to tell others what to believe on the subject and that abortion should be safe, legal, and available, and that women should not have to face harrassment and obstruction from their government or their peers when seeking it.
Which brings us to my new Twitter friend. I've long said that conservatives tend to do better with their messaging because their ideas are so simple that they can fit on a bumper sticker. "Abortion stops a beating heart" is a better message than "Well, actually abortion is a complex issue..." even though the latter has the benefit of being true. So, 140 characters provides the perfect space for regurgitation of talking points, helpfully tagged with #tcot so that others can come to my feed and call me names. He trotted out all of the old favorites - Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist, abortion in infanticide, abstinence prevents pregnancy, and, my favorite, that I support black genocide.
The most telling exchange had to do with birth control, which he initially claimed was 99.5% effective. When I pointed to CDC stats that show failure rates between 7 and 30%, he stuck to his guns saying that birth control isn't difficult to use, so perfect usage stats should be accepted. I pressed on the point about typical failure rates and his reply was that when a condom fails, you should just put on another one. I pointed out this was pointless, but he couldn't understand my point that when you breach a barrier contraceptive that it is no longer effective.
What the hell is wrong that I'm explaining the basics of contraception to an adult in the US on a Wednesday afternoon? How is it that this person doesn't understand how basic statistics work? And that's when I realized it - this guy is politically engaged. Ignorance of biology, sociology, and mathematics be damned, he's going to vote and he's going to tell everyone he knows to vote so that women can be stripped of their rights. So, it seems to me that I'd better do the same. To hell with the so-called midterm advantage for Republicans. I start making phone calls tonight.