Talking to other people

[muck_a_luck]

It's interesting what assumptions we make about other people in debates, and how it colors how we form opinions. The hard part is getting inside your *own* head, figuring out what it is you are taking as true about other people when it is really your own formulation of who or what that other person is.

For instance, in the debate over abortion. I make assumptions that other people who favor a woman's continued right to access this form of medical care are like me. That they would consider the decision to have an abortion to be a horrible choice, to be made in the most extenuating circumstances, and if the person had an abortion it would be the best of a selection of terrible options. I assume that abortion advocates all think that way, or rather MOST of them do. I mean, I'm know there are at least some people who carelessly have sex, get pregnant, and have an abortion as a form of back-up birth control. But in my mind MOST of the world is like me.

And in discussing with an anti-abortion individual just now, she clearly revealed that she believes the opposite. That in fact most people who advocate continued access to abortion don't make thoughtful decisions at all, that those people are careless and friviolous. She paraphrased Mother Theresa's comment about having abortion so that you may live as you choose.

It's an interesting comparison in expectations. I suspect that neither of us really has any firm grounds to make these broad generalizations. But we do. We view the world through our own biases. It's humbling to come face-to-face with that realization, and a reminder to be self-aware about your own assumptions.

Comments

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Only tangentially, but Mother Theresa is a bad example to use. It's only coming to light recently, but she was pretty nuts, too.

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

I would like to point out, here, that I am not the anti-abortion person you are referring to. I know I may have a reputation in some circles as being your token conservative friend, but apparently, I am your conservative spare!!!

(for the record, it is something I agreed with Clinton on - it should be safe, accessible and rare)

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

I find this really interesting - it's something that I sort of know but need to have re-articulated to me sometimes.

A friend of mine and I had this discussion in uni - the idea that you think other people are like you until they actually demonstrate otherwise. At the time I took the stance that I assume people are not like me until they demonstrate otherwise, but I am now considering that this is not the case, or certainly, not to the amount that I believed it was at the time.

I'm going to link this on my Dreamwidth account, I hope that's OK.