RIGHT TO THE CHIN

I Can't Tolerate All This Tolerance

from Enigma

If I turn on my TV again, and have to watch another celebrity bark at me about “tolerance,” I’m going to hurt somebody. This new fad is making geniuses out of pinheads, while labeling perfectly rational people as demons.

Tolerance, as I’m led to believe by celebrity and the dominating popular press, is the quiet compromising acceptance of anything that is different from you, your beliefs, or your actions. If you dare to criticize any of these differing identities, beliefs, or actions, you’re intolerant, hateful, close-minded, prejudiced, and an oppressor.

The rallying point behind this quest for tolerance is the very popular (and profitable) “hate crime.” This term has designated certain crimes as being more important than others based on prevailing social movements, certain activist groups’ access to microphones and television cameras, and the desperate need for fundraising dollars by these same activist groups. The unfortunate victims of these hate crimes become clichéd martyrs by these same hypocritical and hypercritical cause mongers, who use tragedy to push their political plan of preferential punishment.

The true danger in this hate crime culture is when disagreement is placed at equal par with crime. All crimes are hate crimes. There are different levels of disagreement, just as there are different levels of crime. For example, the person who simply disagrees with homosexuality should not be ranked alongside the criminals who kill homosexuals. When this happens, people become dishonest and unwilling to express their unpopular opinions. And it’s only when these differing viewpoints are expressed, that people can truly learn. And education is the key, isn’t it?

Now, I will admit, a person’s identity should not be open to criticism. We are simply who we are, and unless we have thousands of dollars for plastic surgery, we cannot change our identity. Actions and beliefs, however, are open for ridicule, condemnation, disagreement, and intolerance, because so many other beliefs and actions require the perfectly legal practice of ridicule, condemnation, disagreement, and intolerance. But do these differences warrant violence? Well, in the case of self-protection and preservation, yes it does. (See the World Trade Center.) But if you are simply opposed to someone’s beliefs or actions, violence is not a viable option. The often futile goal of disagreement is to persuade the other person to magically convert to your way of thinking, and it’s a bit hard to get someone think like you when you’ve bashed their head in with a rock.

Celebrities often push their message of tolerance in an attempt to sound intelligent and caring. They spend their entire careers maintaining an image, and pretending to be other people, and at some point they need to appear human, so they latch on to whatever causes bring them positive press. And in a country where the liberal press is the dominant press, they wind up promoting causes that are positive in liberal eyes: gun control, gay rights, affirmative action, the anti-death penalty movement, and the pro- (choice) abortion movement. Celebrities need to be popular, at any cost, and that’s why I, a white, conservative, married male, have to constantly hear their viewpoints, and why I have to be constantly labeled as intolerant for disagreeing. Click.