The Things That Grind My Gears These Days, I Could Write An Entire Encyclopedia...

But who'd listen, anyways?

So I was just getting out of therapy (physical, so stop right there), and I saw the bumper sticker on your right on an (guess what? Drum roll, please…)
SUV. Sans the SEE ALSO bottom line.

Good thing that person wasn’t in the car. Had they been getting out, they’d have heard me say “Fuck you!” in a very loud voice.

I get a little tired of the same old stupid platitudes. Hey, have you heard this one? Chances are, if you’ve been blogging for around 3-6 months, and said anything defamatory or insulting about religion, or anything resembling a conservative opinion that was horseshit, the response (5 out of 10 times) will be ‘Wow, that’s pretty intolerant for a liberal ’. (You can almost imagine them spitting the word out like insult.)

Why should I be tolerant of stupidity? If someone tells me that they should be able to survive a 40 story drop off a building if they simply believe it strongly enough, I’m going to call bullshit. Likewise, if someone tells me that dropping an atomic bomb should take care of the problems in the Middle East, what am I to do? Nod vacuously, and respect an asshole’s opinion? Not on your life.

So let’s look up a few words, and see what the semantics say.

Liberalism is defined as:

Liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. Within liberalism, there are various streams of thought which compete over the use of the term "liberal" and may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for constitutional liberalism, which encompasses support for: freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, the rule of law, an individual's right to private property, and a transparent system of government. All liberals, as well as some adherents of other political ideologies, support some variant of the form of government known as liberal democracy, with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law.

There I am, an American Liberal (I lean more towards the Social Liberal than most of the other definitions, but I’m just keeping it brief here).

Now let’s define Tolerance:

Toleration and tolerance are terms used in social, cultural and religious contexts to describe attitudes which are "tolerant" (or moderately respectful) of practices or group memberships that may be disapproved of by those in the majority. In practice, "tolerance" indicates support for practices that prohibit ethnic and religious discrimination. Conversely, 'intolerance' may be used to refer to the discriminatory practices sought to be prohibited. Though developed to refer to the religious toleration of minority religious sects following the Protestant Reformation, these terms are increasingly used to refer to a wider range of tolerated practices and groups, or of political parties or ideas widely considered objectionable.

The concept of toleration is controversial. For one, "toleration" does not raise the level of an actual principle or ethic, such as other concepts (respect, reciprocity, love) do. Liberal critics may see in it an inappropriate implication that the "tolerated" custom or behavior is an aberration or that authorities have a right to punish difference; such critics may instead emphasize notions such as civility, pluralism, or respect. Other critics may regard a narrow definition of 'tolerance' as more useful, since it does not require a false expression of enthusiasm for groups or practices which are genuinely disapproved of.

(Yeah, I’ve been on about that before, too.)

I’m going in favor of the narrower definition. Your culture celebrates infant sacrifice, random pillaging, rape? YOUR CULTURE IS WRONG, ASSHOLE! There, that simple.

Any questions?