*
Here and There ... and Back Again
Brand Selvia

Thinking about tolerating the intolerant

Posted Friday, February 15, 2019, at 1:56 PM
Comments
View 3 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • *

    Either I was not clear, or you have a comprehension problem. Or maybe both. Let's try again...

    The gentleman from PCCS acknowledged that he was "retarded" (or more accurately, asked if you knew that). You took offense to his own label and instead of simply saying "what's your point?" or asking him why he felt like he needed a label at all, you said that you wouldn't call him that. He proceeded to ask what you would call him. (Which from his perspective was probably a pretty legit question.) Then you ran away instead of actually engaging the guy in conversation - where you might have found that while he is retarded, he is a nice guy with a good heart and an odd sense of humor.

    If he is indeed mentally retarded, then he is retarded. Its not me calling him that, it is a matter of fact. Your discomfort with that word doesn't make it wrong nor does it change the reality of his condition. And his condition has nothing to do with who he is as a person. (Which I admonished you about when I said that you could've had a conversation with him instead of running away.)

    As for Spina Bifida - that is not mental retardation. There is a medical difference. If you were called retarded for it, then your issue is with those people who, either out of ignorance or perhaps malice, decided to tag you with such a moniker. If you were called other names - again, your issue would be with those people that were calling you names in a malicious way and why they did so.

    Perhaps it is your own prejudices and biases from this experience that color your views on how other people deal with things. And while you knock your grandfather for being less than acceptable by your standards, do you also call out those who choose to listen to rap music? Or do you give them a pass b/c of skin color? (No, not all black people listen to rap, and it is not strictly a black audience, but you should get the point.) My grandfather liberated the Phillipine Islands from the Japanese during WWII. After this, he hated all Japanese people with a burning passion. Do I agree with his blanket assessment of the Japanese? No. But I can understand the WHY and hope that he later realized he should see people individually. Perhaps your grandfather has a history that you are not taking into account, a history that colors his views with his particular biases and prejudices.

    And I have to ask - how does one, by necessity, become intolerant of intolerance? It is more than seemingly paradoxical - it IS paradoxical. Unless of course you are the one defining the terms. In this case it seems that you wish to define the first "intolerance" as that which you will not tolerate, while defining the second "intolerance" as that which others will not tolerate. So either you must accept that on its face this line of thought is absurd, or that you are (by right of your own moral superiority?) to be the arbiter of what will and will not be tolerated.

    While that world view would undoubtedly work for you, I don't think it would work for me or a great many other people who simply don't see things as you do... and we just might have to decide that WE won't tolerate YOUR intolerance.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Fri, Feb 15, 2019, at 4:48 PM
  • *

    "He has also assigned African Americans that particularly flagrant label on some of those posts."

    And yet, after you sell your own grandfather down the river, you engage in the same behavior...

    Let's look at it another way, shall we?

    "He has also assigned [ideologically opposed persons] that particularly flagrant label on some of those posts..." like when the writer referred to them as TROLLS.

    Physician, heal thyself.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Tue, Feb 19, 2019, at 9:02 AM
  • I agree but I don't believe that the so called tolerant really are.

    Today, the definition of tolerance is "I am tolerant of those who agree with me".

    If BG and other forums denounced all intolerance, no matter the political leaning, then and only then, we can understand what intolerance really is.

    Currently, intolerance is nothing more than a position that is different from mine!!!!!

    Sad, isn't it.

    -- Posted by beg on Thu, Mar 28, 2019, at 1:37 PM
Respond to this blog

Posting a comment requires free registration: