bkev said:
I'm not Frink, but it bothers me some too and here's my two cents. It's not the picture that's offensive. It's the usage of it as a pro-life statement. The avatar in this case is meant to represent the person's beliefs, and therefore, advocate for them. Though more of a positive reinforcement than some pro-life advocates I've seen - for example, Earth Day pro-life protesters used blown-up pictures of dead fetuses in San Diego, and it was uncomfortable to walk past and out of place at the event - it's still a misplaced emotional appeal.
Just my two cents.
When is emotional appeal misplaced and when is it not? Not sure why I'm even on this kick right now, but I remember while at the University of Arizona, week after week different folks representing different ideals would use emotional appeal to try and drown out common sense. As I've said in the politics thread, there were numberless opponents to the Iraq War, and in order to tell us to "Get Out Now!", emotional appeal was thrown all over the place, showing hundreds of empty boots on the mall, gory stories of American soldiers committing heinous acts (though by far in the minority), unfairly attributing every single death to George W. Bush...are these well placed emotional appeal?
Maybe you might argue that they're not particularly graphic, unlike abortion pictures. Okay, so let's look at more graphic imagery. How many pictures of naked Jewish corpses stacked and ready to be burned have you seen? Have you ever seen the footage of the Saigon execution? Have you ever seen footage of the inhumane Tutsi slayings at the hands of the Hutus in Rwanda? How many images have you seen of murdered Middle Easterners at the hands of IS? Have these not stirred emotions in you? I guarantee, they have been used for emotional appeal? Were they misplaced?
You see, when you abort a fetus, whether you like it or not, it's messy business. And pretty early on, it is easy to see that you are not killing a blob or a prawn, but a very underdeveloped human child, with fingers, toes, a head, a heart. It may be graphic, but it's also reality. Some people find the thought abhorrent. Then why might it be inappropriate to use the image of an aborted fetus as a representation of why a pro-life proponent might be misplaced emotional appeal?
And so this remains on topic...
COME BACK TO US TRIDENT! WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU!!! WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF YOUR PRESENCE, BUT WE NEED YOU!!!
Maybe now he'll feel loved enough to return.