Let me first preface this by giving a little background. I am NOT a realist. I am an Idealist-Technocrat-PseudoIntellectual with a love for History, Religion, Mankind, and the World itself. I'm not on the same wavelength as many people, and my words can be easily misconstrued. That being said, please keep that in mind when reading any of my blogs.
Are you a tolerant person? I was recently involved in a debate about tolerance that really fired me up. It initially started as a discussion about a Youtube video in which a middle-aged woman was standing on a streetcorner in her town with a sign condemning gay marriage. A young couple walks up and begins screaming at the woman, going as far as to throw their sodas at her, spit, curse, and attempt to destroy her sign.
The first comment that was made after watching that video was "Good, she got what she deserved! I can't stand that kind of intolerance."
I reminded the speaker that the attacking couple in this video was being intolerant of a middle aged woman with strong beliefs and a sign. To which I was accused of being anti-gay.
Immediately the debate escalated into a carnival of hurling accusations and name calling, simply because I reiterated the fact that attacking intolerance is not true tolerance.
I ended the argument with a single sentence. "I guess we all just need to learn to tolerate intolerance because it exists." We all have the right to say and think what we want, regardless of how other people feel about it. Instead of attacking people with opposing views, we should be defending to the death their right to say it.