Rex Kerr
1 min readAug 1, 2022

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Those aren't statistics--it's a thought experiment. Statistics are things like "less than 1% of abortions happen in the third trimester in the United States".

Why would I take all the time and effort to (1) respond to Ololade about how wrong and poorly-phrased most of his argument is, (2) ask you questions and point out the most charitable interpretation of Ololade's argument, and (3) engage with you multiple times to clarify the question if I didn't want to listen to your answer?

What a waste of effort!

Maybe you are so used to people wanting to grandstand rather than explore issues with reasoning that it's hard to accept the latter if it happens. Or maybe you don't actually have any argument, just an intuition about what the right answer must be. Or maybe something else--I can't tell.

However, when the answer to "here is a case that looks potentially problematic--let's discuss" is "LALALA, go away, I won't talk", you aren't doing anything to advance the cause of abortion rights. It's not your job, so maybe you don't care; or maybe you don't know how; or maybe you're just not in the mood. But you certainly can't pat yourself on the back saying, "I'm such a good supporter of rights that I rejected an opportunity to explain why the view I hold is the correct one."

(I am also happy to form the best possible version of your argument, too. But I can't do that when I don't know what it is.)

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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