Yesterday, in near shock that a good and once wise friend posted on Facebook the head-exploding meme by a simple-minded activist named Jenny Carter, above, I challenged Ethics Alarms readers to perform the thorough defenestration of that smug brain-garbage it deserves. I had neither the time nor energy. Responding to my metaphorical Bat Signal, erudite veteran commenter Ryan Harkins came through like a champ, authoring the masterpiece below, a Comment of the Day if there ever was one. Here is his rebuttal, really a guest post in length and quality, in response to the post, “Ethics Jump Ball”:
Dear Jenny,
You can make strawmen of our principles all you want, and argue all day against them, but all that will gain you is a smug feeling and “likes” from your friends, and make absolutely no inroads with the MAGA crowd whatsoever. But I know that your entire intent is to make me waste my time answering you. So, perhaps foolishly, I will oblige.
To begin, a little groundwork. A dilemma is only a dilemma if you really only have the two options. If there is any other alternative, such argumentation falls apart. Second, if you are going to address our principles, maybe you should determine what those principles actually are. For example, being pro-Second Amendment is not about shooting people. It is about the right to bear arms against, especially, an overbearing, tyrannical government. Being pro-life does not mean that you believe that no one should die, ever. Third, in any given situation, there may be more than one principle in play, and to ignore that to score rhetorical points is arguing in bad faith.
So let’s get into it.
Ethics Alarms 
Outstanding essay!!!
The post is brilliant, but I am afraid as meaningful as having a theological conversation about the Eucharist with those who think like the late Ayatollah Khamenei. The minds of the hard left only allow for one truth, namely theirs. The minds of those people cannot be changed by > 30.000 people being executed on the streets of Tehran. Sadly the only thing that changes a hard-left mind is when it is reorganized by a bullet, e.g. Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The post is brilliant, but I am afraid as meaningful as having a theological conversation about the Eucharist with those who think like the late Ayatollah Khamenei.
That is an unfortunate comparison since, among those who are non-believers or agnostics, the notion of Christ becoming embodied in the otherwise neutral bread and literally being transformed into God-stuff is probably (for unbelievers) as ungrounded as sone of the metaphysical beliefs held by Khamenei …
😎
Maybe I did express myself unartfully, my point is that it is impossible to argue with people whose mind has been made up. Here is another example of somebody who proves that he is ethically braindead, Don Lemon:
Essay’s such as this are for the audience not the original poster. The calm reply stands as a contrast to the hysterical.
This “Jenny Carter” woman, if she’s not really a fat, middle aged, bald, liberal dude, may be a verbal provocateur of the least intellectual and most specious variety, but she knows how to curate her image! T-shirt arm rolled up (sprezzatura style) to expose her upper arm, which was inked to look like she’s been in a horrific accident, with arteries and veins all askew. (Do t-shirt sleeves ever stay rolled up after the photo is taken?) Then there’s the hair, feathered into a look of controlled resolution to frame her facial look of benevolent yet stern accusation. Overall projecting – “I touch up my photos to look sexy to enhance my otherwise vapid messages.” Fake. Want to read something worthwhile? Read the works of Jennie Carter, am American journalist writing in the mid 19thcentury. Given the great writers and thinkers of the world, why waste your time with this performative, lackluster fake?