From the sign that reads Arbeit Macht Frei (“work makes (you) free”) over the gate at Auschwitz, to the Doublespeak forced on the population by the totalitarian government in 1984, the mutilation of language has long walked hand in hand with evil. As yet another example, we get this bizarre episode from frequent commenter Zachriel:
In a prior thread I asked Z whether he is in favor of chopping up little unborn babies and selling their parts like meat.
He responded:
The sale of human tissue is illegal in the U.S. As far as we know, no one in the current kerfuffle has been charged with such a crime, but if the evidence supports such a charge, they should be prosecuted.
I suspected Z was playing a word game with me centering on the definition of “sale.” So I pressed on. It turns out I was right:
Z: They get reimbursed for the costs of acquiring, storing, and transporting the tissue, just as they do with any other tissue donation. They can’t legally make a profit . . . . We support current laws which criminalize the sale of human tissue.
So I asked the question this way:
Zachriel are you in favor of allowing Planned Parenthood to chop up little unborn babies and distribute their pieces like meat as part of their fetal tissue donation program?
And we finally got to the truth:
When a woman decides on a legal abortion, donating the tissue for medicine is appropriate.
This really didn’t make sense to me, so I interposed the following:
Zachriel at comment 52:
Q. Are you in favor of chopping up little babies and selling the pieces like meat?
A. No.Zachriel at comment 62:
Q. Are you in favor of allowing Planned Parenthood to chop up little unborn babies and distribute their pieces like meat as part of their fetal tissue donation program?
A. When a woman decides on a legal abortion, donating the tissue for medicine is appropriate.Which one is the lie Z? They can’t both be true.
He replied:
The first is a question about selling, the latter is a question about distribution.
So there you have it, dear readers. “Selling” pieces of babies – bad. “Distributing” pieces of babies – good.
But wait a minute. My dictionary defines “selling” as “to transfer goods to another in exchange for money; dispose of to a purchaser for a price.” And Planned Parenthood admits that it receives money in exchange for the pieces of babies. Why isn’t that selling? Because there was no profit, answers Z. Nonsense. If GM breaks even this year does that mean it did not “sell” any of its cars?
And why does the hyper-technical distinction between “selling” and “distributing in exchange for a cost reimbursement” make any difference to begin with? Both ways a baby is still getting crushed and dismembered, and her pieces are still being delivered to others in exchange for money.
And what if the bean counters make a mistake in the prices they set and Planned Parenthood accidentally makes profit. Now it’s wrong when it wasn’t before?
People who chop up little babies and sell their pieces are evil. People like Zachriel who advocate that practice are also evil. And they compound that evil when they not only mutilate babies but also mutilate language.