Comment by aggieben | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aggieben | Hacker News Reader

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Why do they call it the Death Tax?

...because the estate tax has the effect of being a tax on dying.

Why do they call the lobbying for prevention of medical treatment for women, Pro-life?

Because we think elective abortions (almost all abortions are elective) are not medical treatment, but rather a barbaric practice in which one person is killed for the convenience of the other, and in most cases is harmful in the long-term to the survivor as well. I feel strongly about this, but I'm not upset by people who want to call me "anti-abortion", because I am.

Why can't they call the opposition party by their actual name?

Uh....what? Do you mean "the Democratic Party" as opposed to the "Democrat Party"? I think that one is better chalked up to colloquial speech, regardless of what the Wikipedia article says.

But like I said - being a lifelong Republican and conservative activist, I know exactly zero people who would be upset if you didn't say "death tax", "pro-life", or "Democrat Party" (or PPACA instead of ObamaCare).

... because "estate tax" is a tax on wealth.

... because controlling women is what Republicans want to do. You have to go into very modern religious nonsense to come up with an idea that a fetus is a person, and you've decided that politicians should have more say over a woman's health than her doctor.

... because you hate the idea that a political party could seem "democratic."

Sorry, but peddle that hilarious dishonesty elsewhere. It might fly in Texas, but it makes no actual sense.

1. I said "effectively" a tax on death, because it's levied at the time of wealth transfer, which is almost always at death.

2. There is blaring, obvious religious justification for considering conception to be the beginning of life, and it has a high degree of consistency in logic and basic medical observation. Arguing that life begins at some other (arbitrary) point is a loser's game, my friend, and it comes right out of a post-modern nihilistic nonsense. Being anti-abortion has everything to do with protecting the rights of the child because that child is a person, and nothing whatsoever to do with controlling women, except to the extent it's required to protect the life of the child.

3. Because....what? If that's not manufactured outrage, then I don't know what is. Seriously. I think it's highly likely that most people refer to the Democratic party as the Democrat party because "democrat" is the noun that the adjective "democratic" comes from, and is the grammatically proper way to refer to someone who is a member of the Democratic party (as a "democrat").

All of this really kind of proves my point, I think: I nor any conservative that I know are upset that you don't describe things using our preferred terminology, but you seem to be upset (accusing me of dishonesty seems pretty upset to me) that I decline to use yours. Seems like a one-way street to me.

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