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Being Anti-adoption and other forms of irrationality

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The other day I heard of one of my contacts that an adoption lobbyist, familiar with some work I've been involved in, is trying to dismiss that work on the grounds that I am supposedly anti-adoption. The work, which is a well documented exposé of child trafficking cases, in the minds of the adoption lobby seems to lose value, once the anti-adoption label can be assigned. Corruption and illegal practices simply cease to exist, once the documentation of those activities is perfomed or supported by someone whom the anti-adoption label can be applied to.

These tactics remind me somewhat of the presidential elections where we could see similar remarks. He is a liberal, he is a socialist, he is a muslim. As soon as the label is applied that person is somehow rendered irrelevant or dangerous, radical and certainly irrational. Facts raised by a labelled person just stop being facts, they somehow can be treated as fodder. A foreign policy analysis cannot be trusted because someone is labeled a muslim, an observation about the state of the economy is riduculous because someone is labeled a liberal, or even worse a socialist and the documentation of a child trafficking case is simply untrue because the messenger is labeled anti-adoption.

In his interview with Meet the Press of  Sunday October 19, 2008, Colin Powell made the following statement:

The correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.

Skipping the question of whether I am anti-adoption. What if I am anti-adoption? Is there something wrong with being against adoption in this world? I think the answer should also be "no". There are very rational reasons to be against adoption which I outlined in When is adoption an acceptable option? and I yet have to hear a an intelligent refutation of the position taken in that post. But even if that position would be refuted would that mean child trafficking suddenly didn't take place in China, Columbia, Ethiopia or India? If that's the case I am not going to pay my taxes this year, because my forms were delivered by a mail man who is a socialist muslim.

by Niels on Wednesday, 12 November 2008