Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A discussion of the new tolerance

Amazing! An in depth look at the virtue and curse of tolerance- without any reference to the political use of the intolerance of liberal toleration.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I can see one situation where intolerance seems appropriate. Atheists know that there is no God who has a will that we must follow. Believers insist that God and his will do exist and they try to impose that imagined will on others. For example, believers insist that homosexuality is unnatural and against the will of a God that does not even exist. Gays and their supporters have every right to not tolerate believers who do not tolerate gays. Believers see this as the intolerance of tolerance.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

We all think we have situations where "intolerance seems appropriate".

I don't oppose homosexuality merely because it is against the will of God and unnatural. I oppose *certain actions* done by those who are *same sex attracted* because those actions harm the same sex attracted.

A same sex attracted man who stays celibate, is to be supported. Even one who has a special friendship with another same sex attracted man, who also stays celibate. Even one who, in human weakness and out of original sin, fails in his vow of celibacy from time to time.

THAT is tolerance.

Due to that, and in the spirit of tolerance, I'm willing for the State to support certain laws, that make the lives of such people livable- and in the *same* spirit of tolerance, I'm willing to extend those *same* laws to heterosexuals outside the church, pseudosexuals outside the church, and those who don't share the same beliefs about human sexuality that I do.

But I have to draw the line somewhere- and the line of tolerance for me is drawn at acceptance. I cannot accept that which will do harm. I have a positive duty to warn those I see doing harm, or have harm about to be done to them, that they can and should avoid the situation.

I don't see how anybody can live with themselves otherwise.

Unknown said...

Ted,

You should worry about you and your family and not be so concerned about how other people choose to live their lives. They are not your children and its not up to you to make sure that they do not live a lifestyle that you think will be harmful to them. I can't believe I have to tell you that. It seems like something you would have learned a long time ago.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

I worry about them because everything every human being does on this planet affects everything every other human being does on this planet.

So I utterly reject your philosophy of "live and let live" because people like you aren't willing to allow me to live.

Unknown said...

"everything every human being does on this planet affects everything every other human being does on this planet."

Thus making it wrong for people to mind their own business? That's just another one of your exaggerations. To each his own.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

"Mind your own business" is just yet another neurotypical attempt to shut down criticism of society.

I always find it interesting when dissenters try to shut down dissent against dissent.

Do you know what recursion is? I think it might help.

Unknown said...

I had to look it up but I get the point. When I tell you that you should mind your own business, I am not minding my own business.

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Oustside The Asylum by Ted Seeber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
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