Tolerance is accepting people are different than you.

If Tolerance is not the Social-Political “Catch Phrase” of the 21st Century, I do not know what is! Tolerate this, tolerate that, you have to tolerate this thing or situation. What is tolerance? The American Heritage Dictionary (4th Edition) defines tolerance as:

• “The capacity for respecting the beliefs or practices of others”
  
  
  

What does this mean, “the capacity for respecting”? Does this mean you have to “respect” things you do not believe in? No, it does not. What tolerance REALLY is, is accepting other people may be different from you, AND these differences do not inherently make them bad and even wrong people. Tolerance does not mean you have to agree with them, but an understanding that the disagreement or difference does not make the other a bad person simply because of this difference.

 

I am routinely called a racist, a radical, a homophobe, a “nut case” simply based on my philosophical beliefs [many of which you see on this blog] by people who have never met me or read anything I have written. I have been threatened, some have tried to be bully me because of my political identity,  even though they have never listened to me, and can never describe what my beliefs are. Rather they would insist they “know” what my beliefs are and tell me “how” I believe despite how I actually am. This is not tolerance this is prejudice, and talking about me is NOT what I am writing this.

 

I have a friend I have known for the better part of two decades, and they have found themselves in a bind. Unfortunately, the nature of their work falls into the public interest, and perceived indiscretion may be made to the public as is this case here. I have every bit of confidence in my friend in that they will be cleared of any potential wrongdoing, since I know this is not in their character. While trying to understand the situation in hopes of helping them out I read some local periodicals on the situation. As with many online newspapers, public can be made on the article at hand, and this was the case for one I came across.

 

What struck me about the comments was not the hard conclusions drawn be very little information on the situation, but another post that drew a damning conclusion not based off the case, but off of their perception of my friend. This individual without any knowledge or having ever met my friend, assumed the nature of my friend and with this conclusion, drew another conclusion on the motive of my friend in the situation as a whole. This individual who commented was not basing his perception of possible guilt or innocence on the limited merits of the case, but on their perception of who my friend was (not by name but as a person), this is intolerance.

 

Tolerance is accepting not all of us are of the same cloth. We all do not believe in the same God, so do not at all. we do not have the same color of skin. We are not the same gender, we may live our personnel lives different than the next person. We may look at the same tree from two different perspectives, and notice two different things that stand out. Because we have these differences, does not make the other person wrong and be disposed of a certain nature. We do not have to agree with the other person in all or any question or topic, but we do need to understand this disagreement does not indicate the other person is bad.

Tolerance is not assuming because a person is different than you or may feel the opposite of that they have to act in a certain way. People may be natured to act in a certain way, based a large variety of factors, but certainly not one.

The only way we will be able to fix our society and rid it of its ills is to get together and understand our differences. We do not have to agree with each other, but we need to be able to listen to each other, and the only way this is possible is Tolerance.