My thoughts on "you're intolerant of my intolerance"

[Professor Smooth]

Could somebody please let me know if I'm full of s*** on anything here? I have a hard time noticing it more often than not.

Edit: Here's the article- http://www.cato.org/blog/when-tolerance ... ntolerance


This whole article boils down to "People should be allowed to discriminate against homosexuals if they have a sincerely held belief that homosexuality is wrong". And that is some grade-a ********. Your "sincerely held beliefs" do not mean a goddamn thing once you start using them to hurt other people. It doesn't matter if you "sincerely believe" that gays are sinners, that black people are sub-human, that Jews are money hungry, or that God wants you to kill your children and meet him behind the comet. If you have a "sincerely held belief" then it falls upon YOU not to violate it. In much the same way that if YOUR sincerely held belief is that women should never be seen in public without having their faces covered, that means that YOU chose not to get a driver's license. It's not the responsibility of everybody ELSE to make doing what YOU believe more *convenient*.

Being gay isn't a choice. And it's not a ****ing LIFESTYLE. Saying "I disapprove of their lifestyle" is, if you can believe it, even STUPIDER than just outright saying "I don't like gays". The gay "lifestyle" is "choosing to be in a relationship with the person you love". And in the same way that it's nobody's ****ing business who you or I choose to spend our lives with, it's not some shopkeeper business to approve of YOUR relationship.

Look. I don't really care what you choose to believe. I don't care if you believe in a God who created the world in seven days. I don't care if you believe in the Hindu cycle of creation and destruction. I don't care if you believe there is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet. Don't care. At all. To me, those aren't a whole lot difference from your tastes in art, or sports team. You think spending your Sunday mornings in church is a good use of your time? Fine. I used to spend my Wednesday afternoons in the comic book store. And, believe it or not, I honestly don't see much difference between the two. I *do* start to care when you use those beliefs to hurt OTHER people. Spider-Man is my favorite character, but I never used my "sincerely held belief" that Spider-Man is the best to deny Batman fans the right to visit their spouses in the hospital.

But what REALLY grinds my gears is that most Christians that support (please take notice of the "that" in that statement) being allowed to discriminate against homosexuals do so because of ONE passage in the Old Testament. You know the one. In Leviticus. That same book DEMANDS that children who mouth off to their parents be put to death. It forbids having tattoos. And it says, outright, that wearing clothing made from two different fabrics (poly cotton blends are out) is strictly forbidden. So is entering church if you have any physical defects ("even a defect in your sight). But I don't see many people (Christians or otherwise) trying to prevent tattoo'd, near-sighted, cheap-shirt wearing people from being able to file joint tax returns. |

Every bit of it seems stupid. It's stupid on a religious level. It's stupid on a moral level. And it's stupid on a practical level. And it *confuses* me to not end that a lot of very SMART people don't see that.

[Best First]

Yup.

[Obfleur]

Yup.

What he said.