Glenn Beck gets hoisted by his own petard?

[Papa Schlumpf]

Originally Posted by Morgeruat Connecting it to stem cell research may be wonky,

That basically sums up the entire argument, because, wow. Left-initiated progression is not one big slippery slope that ends in a fascist or communist society. Nor does a move towards conservatism automatically end up in a fundamentalist theocracy or a fend-for-yourself cowboy state, if we reverse the logic.

The actual application of sterilization of the mentally handicapped was a black page in the history of the US, but so were slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, the Salem witch burnings, the Chinese exclusion act, the wholescale massacre of native Americans, you name it. Doesn't mean they should be invoked as a possible next stage whenever a slightly progressive or conservative measure in either direction is proposed. It's in really bad taste, and it may actually discredit any good points you're trying to make in the process.
Also, you may want to read up on Godwin's Law and its corollaries as well, in any case. Glenn Beck didn't, apparently.

[Blind_Prophet]

Originally Posted by Morgeruat Connecting it to stem cell research may be wonky, but when Barack's SCIENCE CZAR has proposed putting sterilants in drinking water, well, you make the call.

By has proposed you mean?

Beck's allegation has its roots in a book John Holdren (SCIENCE CZAR) co-authored (as in he was the third author) with Paul and Annie Ehrlich more than three decades ago (1977) called Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment .

People such as Beck have quoted this book extensively out of context to make the point that Holdren has advocated such positions on the subject.


Here is an excerpt or two from the book itself

"Again, there is no sign of such an agent on the horizon. And the risk of serious, unforeseen side effects would, in our opinion, militate against the use of any such agent, even though this plan has the advantage of avoiding the need for socioeconomic pressures that might tend to discriminate against particular groups or penalize children."

Later, the authors conclude, "Most of the population control measures beyond family planning discussed above have never been tried. Some are as yet technically impossible and others are and probably will remain unacceptable to most societies (although, of course, the potential effectiveness of those least acceptable measures may be great).

Finally he quoted material was from a section of the book that described different possible approaches to limiting population growth and then concluded that the authors’ own preference was to employ the noncoercive approaches before the environmental and social impacts of overpopulation led desperate societies to employ coercive ones. Dr. Holdren has never been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other repressive means of population limitation."