Why We Can't All Just Get Along

My husband was having a discussion via FB today with someone about how Obamacare was going to lead to 15 year olds getting themselves sterilized for free without parental consent. While this may be theoretically possible, it is neither a strong nor a realistic argument to discredit the need for contraceptive insurance coverage. When confronted with the idea that this was a very unrealistic extrapolation, he proceeded to draw even more illogical scenarios from Let's Pretend Land For Crazy People. He argued that voluntary free sterilization of young people would not only encourage them to engage in rampant irresponsible sex, but also to indulge in pedophilia. Furthermore, he was sure that "population control advocates" would use it to further their cause and pressure young people to get sterilized without any concern for their health or their future; and also that it would be used to promote eugenics.

This person seems to be basing political decisions on certain assumptions:
*That many people, especially young people, place so much importance on having sex that they would jump at the chance to undergo surgical sterilization procedures, to the point of having to do it without their parents' knowledge or consent if needed in the case of minors,
*That many people would engage in pedophilia if only there were some way to prevent sperm transmission permanently, and
*That there are people so obsessed with population control that they would try to force other people not to have babies if only they could use surgery to do this.

I cannot accept the validity of any of these assumptions. I won't say that there are NO people out there who are thinking these things that he's afraid they are thinking. But if these people do exist, their numbers are nowhere near large enough to qualify them as a threat to legitimate use of contraceptive surgical procedures.

The biggest problem I see here, though, has nothing to do with sex or sterilization or even Obamacare. It's a glimpse of why political arguments are so divisive: It's one thing to be in disagreement with someone because you have different values or different priorities, but it's another thing altogether to try to talk sense to someone who refuses to touch base with reality. This guy is choosing to pull imaginary scenarios from the fringes of possibility and see them as real. He is choosing to reject other possibilities which are more plausible. When actual experiences are presented to him, he ignores them and instead insists that his wildest nightmares and fears are an actual threat. I've been trying very hard to avoid name calling, but aren't these types of thoughts and behaviors hallmarks of certain definitions of crazy?

I don't really think he is medically crazy, though, which makes it that much harder to reconcile myself to people like him. It's easier (and cathartic) to just call someone an idiot, a whackjob, or a shit-for-brains when they're thinking is so far removed from anything reasonable. But it doesn't accomplish anything, and in the end you are still left with the realization that people like this guy are willing to sacrifice the overwhelming good that can come of certain policies because of their warped and demented view of other people.

So, my point is: If you're going to believe in make believe at least believe in positive, uplifting, and loving make believe that helps other people and assumes that they are worth believing in.