Online Arguments

 For this week’s topic on online arguments, I chose the abortion debate on Reddit because I think it has a good mix of people who love arguing on the internet. Here’s the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Abortiondebate/ 


Of course, my POV in this post will be biased because I believe woman have the right to decide what they want to do with their bodies, as having a child is a life-changing course of events. Pregnancy and childbirth changes a woman’s body forever, and I’m not bound by religion or morals to care about when life begins. The entire argument seems very hypocritical to me because I believe the issue is control over women’s bodies, and that if we really cared about the lives of children we would focus more on improving the lives of existing ones. 

This Reddit threat is a bit challenging because, obviously, it is all opinion-based so there’s not always going to be data to back it up. Making abortion illegal is obviously detrimental to women but the emotional charge behind the issue appears to be more important to people. In the Reddit argument, almost all of the posts turn into personal attacks instead of civil conversations. People are using odd examples and references, and using religion as data. The comments are accusatory and there is no room for people to respect each others thoughts, or at least accept their POV. 

I’m not sure why anyone would want to waste their time in these online debates, but, to have a productive online argument, I’d follow these steps:

1. Use data and facts instead of religion if you’re going to argue about a biological issue. Religion should be used for invisible things, like “I should be a good person”, not “I want to limit your healthcare access”. 

2. Don’t go off on emotionally charged tangents and make personal attacks.

3. Understand the real-life implications of these issues. Does this personally affect you? Did you die of sepsis because you didn’t qualify for a life-saving procedure until it was too late? Are you struggling financially and don’t have the means to raise an actual human being for 18+ years? Do you even have a uterus?

4. Understand your own bias.

5. Recognize online trolls to avoid pointless “rage bait” arguments. Not worth the hypertension. 











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