- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
How did talking about feminism, which was merely as the way to kill the spare time in endless waiting for the next skating event coming up, turn into murder, crime, and hate crime?! Yes, I was the one who brought up Dr. Dobson. Merely using one of his books on education about young children which was the only book and all I've known about him. I have no habit of searching and studying the author's background and political positions in order to determine whether I like his book or not. Then it turned all on Dobson and his political positions which are totally unrelated to mine and my original meaning, and then the murder, the crime, the hate crime law... What's next? Somehow the conservatives have been linked to the extremes. Should there be added a specific group of people called conservatives into hate crime law? It is really scary. I'm out of here.
I want to respond to this, regardless of whether you respond.
1. Lets replace James Dobson with someone more famously vile - say Idi Amin. Now, one's perspective of Idi Amin will challenge anything he does. So if he wrote a book on how to raise your sons, my knowledge that he was a polygamist who was responsible for ethnic persecution; that one of his own sons was convicted for his part in a death of a man, and other aspects of his life would lead me to be leary of anything he wrote. Jcoates, tonichelle, Spun Silver, doris, etc - they're all bringing in their prior perspective on James Dobson. As are you. Of course, as you mention, you had no prior perspective on him because you knew nothing else about him (and truthfully, neither did I). If I would be honest, the fact that his book his classified as "Christian Living" on amazon.com would be enough to steer me away (that and the book description).
2. You don't need to study his political positions to decide if you like his book. The fact is, his political positions would LIKELY inform his book. Toned down, perhaps, but still there. If you're okay with that, then you're okay with that.
3. Your question: should there be a specific group called conservatives into hate crime law? I don't think so, but mainly because I'm not convinced that they're a minority or in need of protection. Do you disagree?