On a better day, I probably wouldn’t write this, but workers have spent the last three weeks showing up at 7am to renovate the downstairs apartment and I am sleep deprived. And there is no appearance that more than one person as showed up at Muse in the Morning for the past two days, so screw it.
I mentioned the title to some people earlier today. buhdydharma commented,
Tough thesis to prove!
I responded,
Probably should say “shouldn’t”…
…but the “we” needs to be expanded upon.
Reading on may offer an explanation.
It is difficult for me to accept that this has to be expressed. But apparently it does.
Liberals are not required, for the sake of their principles, to tolerate intolerance. Liberals are not required to tolerate willful ignorance.
It seems, however, that some people calling themselves liberals think that is the case.
Maybe that’s why many of us adopt the label of progressive. We believe in the goal of progressing towards a better society. And that means the elimination of the bigotry fueled by willful ignorance.
I am failing to accept the notion that teaching our young people in our schools that GLBT people are as worthy of inclusion in our society as anyone else…and more worthy than bigots…is a bad thing. I can’t understand why more people aren’t with me on this.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to bet that some bigots are worthy people in some respects. Hell, I transitioned in Arkansas. I know all about bigotry in ways only a specific target can know. But there is no way on Earth I’m going to tolerate their bigotry. And I don’t care who wants to scream “mind control” or “thought police”, I firmly believe in the use of social engineering to eradicate bigotry. And I can’t understand why more people aren’t with me on that as well.
We are all responsible for our thoughts. And when our thoughts are opposed to equality and justice for all, then we need to be educated about the error in our thinking. Because it is an error. Something basic has gone haywire. We shouldn’t be tolerated for that sort of thinking. We should be pitied…and then educated, firmly and effectively.
And when someone rejects that education and willfully celebrates their resulting ignorance, I believe that person deserves to be penalized in some way. Not tolerated. Penalized.
If a racist can’t work with people of color, the targets of the hatred should not be denied employment or any of the rights or privileges the rest of us may take for granted…should not be told they are being let go because “They are not a team player”…it should be the racist who forfeits those rights and privileges, the benefits and social advantages. The same applies to homophobes and sexists and religious bigots and any other kind of -ist you can think of.
Social progress demands at least that.
At the very least.
Don’t you think?
I cannot understand the thinking that goes on in the brain of a person who observes bigotry and steps back, saying, “Well, to each his own.” That’s not being progressive for sure…and if anyone thinks it is liberal, then liberal has changed its definition in the past 40 years.
You are not being a bigot if you condemn bigotry. Whoever thought up that wheeze? Someone bigoted, I’ll wager.
At least most of us in this country believe in free public education through high school. Fewer of us believe that should be extended, but we are working on it. Part of the problem is that we, as members of this culture, seem to be stuck in believing that if it is free, it has no value. (That’s the students I am talking about.) And of course there are those of us who believe that free education should be indoctrination rather than teaching people how to think efficiently and productively. The people who believe that fear that people who have those thinking skills will end up thinking liberally and progressively. They are right.
As I used to say in Teacher’s Lounge,
| An educated mind is an opened mind. An opened mind is a liberal mind. Teachers don’t have to intend to create liberals, it happens naturally. |
And if we are lucky, those liberals learn to be progressives, that it is not enough to “live and let live”, it is important to improve the culture, to open the doors so that all may pass through, regardless of the circumstances of their birth…that all they need to do is work together…all of us. And if they can’t learn that ALL is too small a word to be separated, then it is they who have chosen to close the doors open to them, that it is they who have chosen to separate themselves from the benefits of that progress, that it is they who have chosen to parse ALL so as to exclude themselves.
Bigotry should not be tolerated. It should be pitied. And people who are bigoted should be educated. And more people should join in that effort.
So I believe.
 Fractious
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…a skunk as just sprayed…or gotten run over…somewhere outside and the smell is permeating the apartment.
right now.
Wish I had some answers.
Finally worked, so I thought
Then the tube went “pop!”.
… in many cases the crudest form of bigotry. “Those stupid people are not in my circle of society, so what they think is of no importance”.
It is not, then, actually tolerance, but rather the petty need to look down our nose at someone else.
If we are to gain full leverage for the power of social collaboration, we cannot tolerate such a sneering form of bigotry in ourselves.
Author
…in Orange.
as tolerance of ignorance? I think so.
keep fighting the good fight.
and… get a good nights sleep!!
but sometimes just shunning is easiest. I don’t want to try to fix all those sick bigots.
OTOH, I’m not about to have lunch dates with them, either.
I do admire people who try to educate them. I’m not very good at it, though. I get angry too quick, and too sarcastic, and the whole thing backfires.
I just don’t see myself as an asset in this war. I’m good at other things, though.
When I do let myself get angry on the net (and generally I try very hard not to) it is just about always about hate speech, though. The hammer should come down on such, and you are absolutely right, Robyn, that tolerating intolerance is wrong.