Tolerance

For my first spew of ideas I want to tackle the idea of tolerance. My first point is that tolerance doesn't mean to embrace other ideas, it's to put up with them. You tolerate the annoying woman in the check-out line at the supermarket who won't stop telling you her life story. You don't necessarily like her, but you put up with her crap because that's the way we're supposed to function in society, to be kind to others. Some ideas are easy to tolerate, while others are more difficult to tolerate. Many atheists have a tough time tolerating the religious while many religious have a tough time tolerating atheists. Tolerance is important because it is important to keep an open mind about new ideas which can help us develop as human beings.

However, after understanding a different culture, it can be difficult to morally justify the existence of a group. This is where tolerance becomes dangerous. Certain ideas and organizations are detrimental to society and inhumane. These cannot be tolerated. Coming from San Francisco where the general stereotype of our people is that of "free love and peace," we see an acceptance of any culture, no matter how ridiculous it seems. George Moscone was the mayor who was friends with Jim Jones and endorsed the Peoples' Temple. This was a man who convinced 909 people to ingest cyanide laced kool-aid. How can we be tolerant of something as evil as this? How can you bring me to tolerate Communism when Pol-Pot killed a third of his country or Stalin who killed up to an estimated 60 million people. These people are evil but the tolerance of all types of religions and of left-leaning governments has blinded San Franciscans to this evil.

In an interesting reversal, San Franciscans do not tolerate the right-leaning groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, homophobes, neo-nazis, and generally anyone who doesn't follow their agenda. You want to smoke in California? get ready for groups of people to attack you. Don't believe in abortion or are a practicing Catholic? get ready to be labled as ignorant, uneducated, or as an idiot. Any trace of conservative thinking is immediately met with disdain in San Francisco. First of all, I do not tolerate hate-groups and of course I recognize Hitler as being evil and I do not tolerate this type of thinking, but I do have tolerance and even embrace some conservative thinking. Rather than being sheep, people should understand both sides of an argument and determine where they stand morally. Ideologies are so much more than just left and right.

Once you've determined your moral position and placement on a political compass and then understood what ideas they want to tolerate or not, then you can make an imformed decision on what you believe. Personally I stand against all forms of totalitarianism. I believe in the eradication of communism, fascism, and any other forms of despotism which have risen in our world. I do not tolerate the policies of Ahmadinejad, Saddam Hussein's former regime, Ayatollah Khomeini's policies regarding Islam in government, the focus of the conversion of the world to Islam, the censorship of slandering of Islam, and many other "islamofascist" tendencies, yet looking into Islam, I do have great for liberal Islam who are trying to fit into the 21st Century and assimilate with the world. I have respect for Roman Catholicism and agree with many of its morals as it promotes love for others and respects free will and conversion not by the sword but by using rationalization of the individual, promoting thought and doubt. I have respect for many other forms of Christianity that promote forgiveness, individual virtue not for glory but to do good, as long as they don't inspire hate among outsiders. These broad morals outline my tolerance for all religions, organizations, and political thoughts. I simply tolerate liberty, justice, and respect.

Discern when and when not to tolerate. It's unacceptable to tolerate every view and it's unacceptable to have intolerance without logic behind it.