Mini-Rant: Tolerance
Why is it that so many think it’s right to use the word “Tolerant” in the context of how they feel towards people of different races living in the same country as them?
It’s a word used by the type of self-righteous liberals that force their way into shot during outdoor news reports, or make it their business to get into the audience of “Question Time” just so they can proclaim their superiority to the world because they’re just SO DAMN TOLERANT. I feel it needs to be said that, by using the word in this context, these people are betraying the very racist, bigoted views that they are attempting to hide.
“Tolerance” in this sense, implies a certain judgmental, condescending attitude. To be tolerant of something is to allow it … to put up with the personal discomfort caused by it … despite your grievences against it.
It must be far from uplifting to hear these people declaring that, in their eyes, “even though you don’t belong in my country, I’ll put up with you“. True racial equality means that you stop splitting the population into groups. You clear away the cobwebs that are the antiquated, bigoted thoughts in your Dickensian brains and you see people as individuals.
There’s nothing wrong with judging individuals on their behaviour. A person’s actions are all we have at our disposal to form our opinions of them. We can then decide whether we need to tolerate the individual in our lives or not. But to do this for entire groups based upon prejudice and stereotypes is illogical and ignorant. It’s amazing that many people agree with vigour that you should not judge people based on stereotypes, but do not see that that is exactly what they are doing when claiming to be tolerant of such “groups” and “minorities” within society.
We are now members of a global population that, in all but the very shallowest of patriotic ways, transcends the idea of “my country” and “your country”. These things may have meant something when you couldn’t fly from one side of the world to the other in just 12 hours for a few hundred pounds. But now, Singapore may as well be as close to the UK as Manchester is to London.
It’s possible that I’m underestimating some people’s indefatigable ability to be truly stupid and that they really believe that “racial tolerance” is the very height of human existance. Thankfully, I don’t claim to be tolerant of anyone or anything. So I don’t mind stating that these people deserve nothing but disdain and, in a perfect world, would be exterminated to prevent their twisted views being passed onto others.
MisterShouty 