Mass Media Slogans Have Replaced Thought, and 'Bodily Autonomy' Is a Prime Example of This Corrosive Anti-Thought
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Disembodied Autonomy | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." September 5, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that modern mass media and academia have replaced real thinking with mindless repetition of slogans, and 'bodily autonomy' is his prime example of such an empty slogan. He claims the body isn't truly one's own to do with as one pleases because we have inherent social duties tied to our embodied existence, which he uses to argue against things like abortion, suicide, and gender-affirming care for minors.
Conclusion
The concept of 'bodily autonomy' is an anti-thought slogan that has replaced genuine reasoning about the body, and like other mass-media-propagated slogans, it substitutes for thought while its adherents mistakenly believe they are thinking.
Premises
- Before mass media, writing and thought (as evidenced in 19th/early 20th century magazines) demonstrated genuine intellectual engagement rather than repetition of slogans.
- Mass media has turned language into a contagion where people repeat phrases by the millions without actually thinking, believing falsely that they are engaging in original thought.
- Colleges and universities, especially English departments, have institutionalized sloganeering, replacing genuine literary analysis with political platitudes for a hundred years.
- The human body is not something a person owns to dispose of as they wish, since one's life and body carry inherent social duties and responsibilities to others.
- Because the body is inherently social and not merely individual property, actions justified by 'bodily autonomy' (such as suicide, dueling, self-mutilation, or abortion) are morally impermissible.
- The rhetoric of 'bodily autonomy' in specific cases like abortion and gender-related medical interventions on children reveals an antagonism toward the body's natural purpose rather than genuine autonomy.
- The remedy for this corrosion of thought is to resist mass media, read old books, and engage in embodied, contemplative activities that allow the mind to heal.
Assumptions
- That pre-mass-media writing was generally more thoughtful and less clichéd than contemporary writing, without accounting for selection bias (only preserved, published works survive).
- That repetition of a phrase or slogan necessarily indicates absence of genuine thought behind it, rather than legitimate shorthand for a considered position.
- That there exists a natural, teleological purpose to the body (e.g., 'made for motherhood') that grounds moral obligations, an assumption rooted in natural law theory rather than universally accepted premise.
- That social/relational duties regarding the body necessarily override individual decision-making authority over one's own body in all the cited cases.
- That opposition to bodily autonomy claims and support for restricting actions like abortion or gender-affirming care for minors follows logically from the 'body is social' premise, rather than being a separate moral/political conclusion requiring independent justification.
- That college English departments and 'political slogans' broadly represent a monolithic, uniformly degraded institution rather than a diverse and contested intellectual landscape.