Spillover: Introlerance

Alright, in response to the intolerance issue from the Spammer thread, my response to nao regarding intolerance:

There's nothing wrong with being intolerant against intolerance. We live in a society that has somehow forgotten that there are differences in cultures that should NOT be accepted. Consider what appeasement would have meant for American or British slavery? We'd still be doing and excusing it, despite it's utter barbarism, because it wasn't "wrong", just "different". Allow me to offend a great many people at once by illustrating my point with a very blunt example:

The Muslim and Christian religions both are VERY WRONG in their treatment of women. It is an unacceptable and unexcusable tenet to hold that any human being is "property" for no reason other than gender (no reason at all, actually, unless the person in question was dumb enough to sell themself into the situation...). I do NOT tolerate the beliefs of any individual who holds that women are the property of men, that believes women are less than men, or that any of the conditions in question are reversed such that women are the superior being in some way. These are not "different" beliefs than my own to be tolerated and excused, they are insidious diseases to be ERADICATED (through education, mind you, not violence lest it be the absolute final option).

This is extreme intolerance of intolerance and I make no excuse for it. I also see nothing wrong with it.

Unfortunately, a person is also free to believe whatever they want, so I'm at a loss for doing anything about individuals' BELIEFS if they simply don't want to change them. However, since an individuals actions can affect much more than the individual, there is absolutely nothing wrong with stopping or altering them when they unfairly hurt another person. If you see a Muslim woman being beaten because she showed her nose, it is not the right thing to simply turn away and ignore it because it's "a different belief system to be tolerated". It's a harmful, shameful act to be stopped by any means, because, although it's not "PC" - it's the RIGHT thing to do. Feel good yuppies who have lived in the lap of luxury on the blood, pain, and sacrifice of the 'greatest generation' would have you believe otherwise because they've never known suffering and can't fathom what it means, but those mental eunuchs should certainly not be your point of reference for anything that requires any sort of balls to do right.

Chris,

You've got strong humanitarian values - I commend it! I think the Koran can been taken too literally, just like the Bible (Old Testament - an eye for an eye, for example). The 'spirit' of the law and the 'letter' of the law ARE different... I think the letter is taken too seriously sometimes.

Nice one.

nao