My Body, My Choice… Oh, Really?
– By Ed Kociela –
I’ve got this thing about hypocrites, I dislike them as much as I dislike liars.
The thing is, if you are going to make a moral pronouncement, you had better well be consistent and not just go with whatever is most expedient or socially acceptable.
I received my second COVID-19 vaccination Friday. To be honest, I love our medical practitioners and admire their selfless dedication, but I try my level best to avoid them as much as possible, especially when I know they are going to plunge a needle into my arm or elsewhere. And, unlike the first round, I did suffer from some of the dreaded side effects from the second round. But, you know what? It was worth it. I can rest easier knowing that I did something that will not only protect me, but my loved ones, my friends, and those strangers I encounter.
That’s why the anti-vaxxers and non-maskers have pushed me over the edge with their refusal to vaccinate by arguing, “My body, my choice.”
As my wife pointed out to me, there is also a greater issue at play here. The yappers screaming “My body, my choice” are very likely to also be the ones shouting down the pro-choicers who say the same thing. They do not understand that you cannot have it both ways. If you get to make the choice about what you do with your body, so should everybody else, which means I would expect to see the anti-vaxxers supporting the pro-choice movement and giving financial, physical, and emotional aid to groups like Planned Parenthood, as if that will happen in this lifetime or any other.
Let’s be sure to understand that this is not a debate supporting pro-choice or pro-life factions, or even pre-vaccine and anti-vaccine supporters. Those are two separate arguments, two separate topics for two separate discussions. What we are talking about here is hypocrisy and the question of why one side can use an argument to support itself yet deny others the same argument to support their rights.
But, hypocrisy reigns, especially among the self-appointed moral authorities who represent organized religion and those who are supposed to represent and defend our rights as elected officials. Those hypocrites give up their moral authority when they cross the line into contradictory behavior. The sad thing is that few are able to acknowledge negative truths about themselves or their inability to remain consistent in matters of our personal rights. Theirs, it appears, are more important than ours, a sort of elitism that prevails among those with the loudest voices that eventually result in cult-like behavior. A stinging example is the rush by Republicans to confirm a new Supreme Court justice in the waning weeks of the presidential race while denying the Democrats the same grace months and months before the expiration of the Barack Obama presidency. The bullies won both times, thanks to the bloom of hypocrisy.
It is all based, of course, on our breadth of rationalization, and, of course, our politics, which, by their very nature, make hypocrites of many. As a result, you’d better do your homework before making any moral judgments and be sure that the person you extol is, indeed, representing your set of beliefs. Hypocrisy, you must remember, is based on a foundation of lies to which the hypocrites should be held accountable.
We don’t do that, however. We, instead, give them a pass because we like their music or their movies or their politics. How else do you explain the popularity of guys like John Wayne, Ted Nugent, and Donald Trump? As a point of full disclosure, I have never been a fan of those three gentlemen, but you probably guessed that already.
We get a lot of high-handed moralization from both sides of the political spectrum, without a doubt. But whether it comes from the left or the right, it is simply an indication of our lack of moral firmament.
It is also evidence that we are all, to a certain degree, control freaks. We want people to think the same way we think, to act as we act, to believe what we believe without respect for our individualism, our unique life experiences, our very context, which are relevant to our belief systems. How we are raised, how we are treated by others, how we view ourselves are integral to all of this.
To maintain a level of credibility, however, you must be consistent. If you believe you can make a decision about your body, be willing to allow others to make decisions about theirs, whether it is based on a pro-choice agenda, legalization of cannabis, or sexual identity and preference. Otherwise, your behavior, character, and integrity are open for dissection.
It is your right to decide which religious club you want to join, which political team you want to play for, which lifestyle you wish to pursue as long as you realize we all have the right to those choices. But, when it comes to such intimate decisions, you cannot pick and choose who gets to follow their own hearts and who has to abide by your personal morality or judgments. If not, you will be the first plucked when I weed my garden, which often needs weeding.
For the record, if you are adamantly opposed to vaccinating yourself, you will probably be weeded out anyway because it indicates that you think so little of the people around you that you would risk infecting them just so you could make a political statement.
So as far as I’m concerned, you can hook up with Donald Trump and Ted Nugent and take in a John Wayne film festival.
I will be more than happy to stay home and watch reruns of “Grace and Frankie.”
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The irony of this column is staggering. You go on a rant about hypocrites with your own hypocrisy on full display. You seem to enjoy judging other people quite a bit, so I’ll give you the opportunity to pass judgment on me. I truly believe that every individual has the right to determine what is done to their own body, in any and all circumstances. Anyone that believes otherwise is a proponent of slavery. Period. I have had COVID-19 and am fully recovered. I am NOT going to get vaccinated for two reasons.
The first is because the vaccines are still experimental. They are NOT FDA approved, they only have an emergency use authorization. If you don’t know the difference, then have have not done any research of your own. The long term trials are not complete. In fact, you are now a trial participant.
The second is that having had the virus and recovering from it, I now have natural immunity to the virus and cannot catch it again, and therefore cannot spread it to anyone else. And don’t start with the variant BS. Cross-reactive T-cell immunity is much more efficient that a vaccine.
So what does that make me, Ed? A monster that doesn’t care about other people? I think that I care a lot more about other people than you do, because I have no desire to control anyone else’s behavior.
I believe that the worst virus that mankind has ever been exposed to is the one that separates people into an Us vs Them mentality. That is a truly deadly virus, and it appears that you are badly infected.
first off you haddddddddd it, you do not need to get it. you already have the antibodies you dumbass
That’s not what your government is saying!
Mr. Kociela’s argument is not based on a valid comparison. In order to be a hypocrite you need to make diametrically different judgments involving similar or the same principle. Saying that my body my choice is an argument for not getting a vaccine is not equivalent to my body my choice when there is another life involved, that of the baby.
I have had a full slate of vaccines almost all my life because I traveled internationally, was in the military and in the medical surgical field. However, every medical decision involves risk versus benefit. That equation could be different for different individuals. To require universal vaccination disregards that equation for each individual, and is contrary to standard medical decision making.
There is a valid argument against requiring everyone receiving a vaccine that was developed in approximately six months versus a normal six year timeframe, did not receive normal FDA approval but emergency experimental approval, did not involve standard animal trials and did not have long trials of several years with hundreds, if not thousands of patient. As evidence of this we now have many reports of side effects and complications and even fatalities associated with administering these vaccines. In addition requiring young people, especially those under the age of 30-40 who have no compromising conditions to get the vaccine is just not scientific.
Your argument is full of holes, inconsistencies and a latent and uneducated intolerance of differing opinions.
what? you could be harming other people who have bad immune systems by not getting it? you are harming another living human. therefore yes, it is the same logical thinking!
Even vaccinated people are spreading it, so that’s not a valid argument.
Disgusting, ugly, judgmental AND hypocritical rant. Makes me want to STOP supporting this “news”paper.
What a weak argument. Abortion is a woman killing another individual. Not taking an experimental vaccine into my own body only involves me.
Secondly, I’ve been a proud anti-masker. Sorry if that upsets you, Ed.
Sir, your argument is completely ignorant of the anti-abortion position.
Most of those opposed to abortion fully support a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body, just as we support every human’s right to bodily autonomy.
For all of us, however, our right to autonomy ends when another person’s right begin to be infringed. Your argument completely ignores the anti-abortion position that a fetus is not just a part of the mother — it is a completely independent human, and should receive equal rights, including the right to life, that every other human being is due.
If you think that the people you mention are being hypocrites, then I must say that you have completely missed their sarcasm. They are trying to show you how ridiculous your words are. You just haven’t been able to get their point.
Please, do stay home, and off your computer.
You don’t even understand the people who you are writing on. “My body, My choice” is to prove a point that Democrats are the actual hypocrites because they are the ones pushing for people to get the vaccinations and if they had it their way 100% people probably would NOT have a choice or a say in the matter!
Oh my gosh!! I’m actually embarrassed for you. The comparison of killing a SCIENTIFICALLY COMPLETELY SEPARATE human being as being a “right” and being able to refuse an EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE that is NOT FDA approved and you have ZERO recourse for any potential complications shows your astonishing lack of IQ points. Try doing a little independent thinking before you spew lies. Take a look at the _____ in the Whitehouse and what they were saying about these vaccines THEMSELVES a year ago. And shut your pie hole.
Similar to the movie “Inception”, there is hipocrisy layered within hipocrisy in this argument. I am absolutely vaccinated. Only a jackass would balk at the near consensus along the scientific/medical communities’ advocacy for this option. That is not the point here. A moral precedent was set by “my body my choice”. I’m not saying whether abortion is right or wrong. I am saying it’s merits we’re advanced under the supremacy of bodily autonomy over all other considerations. People that say abortion does nit hurt anyone (as I’ve read in other articles) demonstrate that they think the potential for life is not harmed and their sexist position that the male has so little value that they are nit harmed by the decision. Regardless, as a policy, bodily autonomy was most important. Here, if we accept, a priori, that the vaccine saves other people, we STILL must accept that other people’s harm is not as important as bodily autonomy if we want to avoid hipocrisy. So the liberal precedent is set and bodily autonomy must be of highest concern. So to then vilify anti vax era for employing the policy the liberals in acted, illustrates THEIR hipocrisy. And reveals them to be hypocrites with their accusations of hypocrisy. It is unfortunate, but here we are. Until a few years ago I was a liberal. I am not… nor am I a conservative. I see a lot of the same fallacies on both sides of the isle…
You may or may not like a person’s decision, but you will have to accept it. Why you may ask? Well, it is a little something called free will (aka freedom of choice).You are allowed to kick, scratch and scream all you want, but at the end of the day you will still deal with it. Free will can sometimes be a bitter pill to swallow, but you will just have to swallow it whether you want to or not.
The best part of this article is not typing about the other side. People who are pro baby death aren’t pro medical choice. So yeah baby killing is fine but not deciding what you put in your body.
Also note the magnitude of differences here:
World wide abortion 2020: 42 million
World wide Coof deaths: under 2 million
Actually you are the hipocrite. Try looking at yourself. As for abortion, if anyone who supported abortion “followed the science” they would clearly see that a baby is in the womb since a baby was born and lived at about 5 months into the pregnancy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet abortion is legal until 9 months. At least be honest and follow the science and say, okay, I’m pro choice, but I’ll agree that since the earliest premature baby born was born at only 5 months,,,abortion should therefore NOT be legal after that time since that is in fact, scientifically proven, it’s a viable human being. And as for your vaccination holier than thou aren’t you awesome for getting the vaccine stance, girlfriend, please….people WHO ARE VACCINATED are getting covid and spreading covid too. https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2021/november/baby-had-virtually-no-chance-of-survival-mdash-then-the-record-breaking-preemie-shocked-doctors-and-defied-all-scientific-odds