If you sterilized all Republicans...

People, please. Bill Bennett was just being philosophical when he suggested that aborting all black babies would reduce crime. There's nothing offensive about a little reductio amongst friends.

So, now it's my turn.

If you sterilized all Republicans, the crime rate would eventually drop. You'd end the intergenerational legacy of crime. If you squelched that culture of corruption you'd see less insider trading, less graft, less criminal conspiracy, fewer illegal wars...

Of course, I'm not advocating the forcible sterilization of registered Republicans. That would be morally reprehensible, not to mention impractical. Nevertheless, it's obviously true that Republicans form an intractable criminal subculture. So, sterilizing them all would be an effective, if excessive, response to the rising tide of looting that threatens to overwhelm society as we know it.

Inevitably, these remarks will prove offensive to some people. They'll say that my choice of a hypothetical betrays my unabashed contempt for Republicans. They'll say that it's intellectually sloppy, not to mention hostile, to stereotype all Republican wombs as felon-factories.

Obviously, these naysayers don't understand high-minded intellectual give and take. Too bad I'm statistically and logically unassailable.

If we could deport those trouble makers to Twin Earth and drown them in XYZ, that'd stop their bellyaching.

Comments

[Lisa]

Beautiful. Couldn't be better said.

[Jimboman]

Echidne for Justice of the Supreme Court, President, Queen of the USA.

Is it legal, proper, decorous, seemly, or even possible for a Goddess to morph into a mortal and take over the whole shebang?

[Jimboman]

Sorry, Majikthise, I had the Echidne synapse sort-circuited. You're the one who has the right stuff at the moment.

[Akatabi]

After listening to Bill Benett, James Dobson has just come up with a hypothetical way to reduce interest rates.

H. Rumbold, Master Barber

[almostinfamous]

I bow to my newfound canadian overlord!

[pebird]

Ah, you assume Republicans are born, not made.

If only it were as simple as sterilization.

[StealthBadger]

*shrugs*
They want their laissez-faire, social Darwinistic, empire-building, idol McKinley back. Is it so hard to understand the urge to fulfill the destiny of America to be that shining city by the sea, that will be a beacon of power and wealth that none can stand before without trembling in awe?

*looks around for someone to say "no" so he can whack 'em with a large stick*

[The Assimilated Negro]

I don't know. I think putting Bennett up as a target misses the point. He wasn't asserting a point of view he held, he threw it out there as a hypothetical situation. If "high-minded intellectual give-and-take" is the goal then you need to detach yourself from the emotional buzz of an issue and look at it objectively. removed from media spin bennett's comments aren't really all that controversial ...

[Philip Brooks]

I love analytical philosophy humor. =)

[bondo mondo]

Well said Lindsay, but I take a lesson from Swift and I ask, modestly, where can be found a
cheap source of protein raised on white bread?

[notyou]

How about THESE unassailable statistics?

http://blackgenocide.org/black.html

" I think putting Bennett up as a target misses the point. He wasn't asserting a point of view he held, he threw it out there as a hypothetical situation. If "high-minded intellectual give-and-take" is the goal then you need to detach yourself from the emotional buzz of an issue and look at it objectively. removed from media spin bennett's comments aren't really all that controversial ..."

Assimilated Negro,

Yep, Bennett threw it out there as a "morally reprehensible" hypothethical. But that fact will not be recognized here.

On this blog facts, however interesting, are not relevant. How else can half-truths and sometime ill-informed speculation be spun into political ammunition?

Keep waiting for "high minded intellectual give-and-take" as as opposed to emotional buzz on this blog. Pack a lunch. Better yet, pack a year's supply.

[suzib]

Glad I'm notyou! Genocide is no laughing matter, even when taken out of context.

[bellatrys]

No, notyou, Assimilated--

It wasn't taken out of context.

No one is saying that he was explicitly advocating genocide.

What he said was, --iff you were looking for a way in which abortion could be justified as a benefit to humanity, the first natural segment of humanity you'd abort to benefit humanity was black Americans. Now we can't do this because it would be logistically impossible and abortion is murder - but it would work, no doubt about it, as far as making life better for the rest of us.

Nope, not racist at all.

And for Bennett to compare himself to Swift is just ludicrous. Swift was an outsider, a member of a group considered a separate race in those days and one naturally criminal and stupid and treacherous, one of a very small minority who managed to get through the net and "make it" as a racy transgressive entertainer in the overclass. (Name three other successful-in-England Irish authors from the 18th century, off the top of your head. --Y'all knew Swift was Irish himself, right?)

The proper parallel is Swift::Kanye West - and West is the one who is actually using satire in this case, he's not seriously arguing that black kids should drop out of school and become drug dealers because the System is rigged against them.

But the fact that conservatives don't get irony is not exactly news to us in Left Blogistan...altho' Irony Deficiency Syndrome is certainly not limited to the right.

[Thad]

Yep, Bennett threw it out there as a "morally reprehensible" hypothethical.

And nobody is objecting to that -- although Bennett is trying to make it seem so, nobody thinks he was actually advocating aborting black children. People are objecting to the premise that underlies his hypothetical, i.e., "more black people = more crime."

[Stephen]

I think the comment about blacks being sterilized is being viewed in the wrong light.

Looking at distribution of wealth, or more importantly, poverty statistics, it is proven that with increased poverty in an area, you'll have higher rates of crime. The implications of that are obvious and inescapable. People who generally need more will resort to whatever means necessary to get that which they need. Moreover, people who are habitually poor are that way not because of discrimination or any other reason than personal fault. Statistics show that they may be more likely to steal what they need, or blow their money on a wasteful addiction, or a stupid endeavor--like Quixtar--than on something with tangible future results, like education.

And if you were to look further, most people who live in habitual poverty areas are, unfortunately, black.

So, truthfully, one could say that sterilizing blacks would lower crime but very slowly, and then, only with the right blacks. It'd be a much quicker thing to show if you were to kill the same people, rather than sterilize. Cities like Atlanta and Washington are showing rates of Wealth distribution that is nearly equal between the races, meaning that cutting out the wrong blacks--those on the mid to high income brackets, would have no effect on the crime rate.

In fact, if you culled out the bottom 10% of any race, there would likely be a statistically noticable decline in crime.

So, in conclusion: tactful? No. Truthful: dubious.

-red