Is tolerance intolerant?

[bennyboy]

It's necessary for the sort of national coming together Benny was commenting on, yeah.  For notions of the most fundamental unity and cohesion and equality to be more than transparent lip service.  Not everyone around a fire singing kumbaya, just the basic expectations.  Just as understanding why and how the things people bitch about as PC is necessary.

I think PC is a very good example for a case study. I think almost all of us agree that black people, gay people, and any other people who aren't in some way actively harming others should be shown dignity and fairness. As you know, I dislike the current breed of PC, but even I would rather have the noisiest, most annoying squawking PC extremist than to have a total lack of dissent-- because that way leads immediately to dictatorship.

On the other hand, though, there also needs to be some understanding that ideas take time to change, and that if everyone under the sun is screaming for their particular issue to be the most important issue in society on a given day, the "tolerance airspace" so to speak gets pretty dense. Everything we talked about before in the race-issues thread is important. Then there are environmental issues that are deeply important to some, humanitarian issues (including vegetarianism) that are deeply important to others, and even philosophical differences about education, the economy, how school dollars should be spent. Almost everyone I know has some kind of trigger issue-- and some triggers feed naturally off each other.

(Actually, I'm a very strong vegetarian for both philosophical and pragmatic reasons, and find the meat industry deeply disturbing. I could definitely spend my days screaming "murderer" at every McDonald's I passed or country boy with a hunting story, or throwing buckets of paint on every rich bitch with a fur coat. But I don't, because no matter how I feel, I know that these kinds of issues might get addressed over decades or centuries-- not in a sign or a forum post)

If everyone has to slam on the brakes when their personal issue of importance come up, then all the moral rightness in the world doesn't make up for the fact that we will have a society where nobody can walk more than one step in any direction without stepping on eggshells.

---

Okay, so back to the Christmas stuff.

It's my guess that either Christianity and other religions will slowly disappear, or they will slowly adapt so that they fit into modern society better. The current pope gives a pretty good example of a religion that's decided it needs to try and do that.

But in the meantime, verbally berating every Christian who comes a-caroling, or getting really upset about teachers singing Christmas songs, is very unlikely to produce anything more than unnecessary friction.

To me, it has to be a process of patient negotiation. Instead of flipping the fuck out, you have to visit the school, explain that you are uncomfortable with Christmas traditions being imposed on students. Ask the principal to think about it a bit, then go back in a week and see if he's come up with some ideas. Then, if reasonable efforts to negotiate fail, you can pull out the picket signs or obtain a lawyer to help you get heard.