The Rise of Anti-Government Bigots: Spitting, the N-Word, Anti-Gay/Lesbian Slurs

[dreadgeek]

I have said before and I'll say again that I much prefer my bigots out front and loud where I can keep an eye on them. However, I'm not going to do those bigots the favor of pretending that they aren't bigots just because they're 'only' calling me the n-word. As I said in my prior post, today it's calling me the n-word. Tomorrow it's doing something to me that "ni--ers got coming to them".

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of the intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument, they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.
(Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies)

I quote this whenever this subject comes up because IF we ever lose our democratic republic it will likely be because we decided that tolerance wasn't worth defending until it was too late.

Cheers
Aj

Originally Posted by theoddz

I totally see where Kobi is coming from about the slurs bit. I remember when sexism was out in the open with the off-color, bad taste comments that some men would hurl at women. I served in the military and endured that kind of thing from men when "political correctness" wasn't in vogue. Then, when it became a litigious issue and the anti discrimination laws were passed, these same men shut their friggin' mouths. I was relieved that those laws did that....at first. Then I began to see the other side of that coin. When we used to know who the sexist pigs were, because they opened their mouths and told us so, they now kept their comments to themselves and we were forced to find out the hard way.....after we lost our jobs, promotions and were sometimes assaulted sexually by the men who used to verbally vent their feelings. Sometimes the most sexist, biggoted asshats hide behind disingenuous smiles, sweet words and token gestures. Their feelings are, instead, only revealed after the damage is done.

Throwing bricks through windows and other illegal tactics or "acting out" is quite another matter. Somehow, I don't think Kobi meant to say that that was or should be considered to be a "freedom of expression". Linus has it entirely right when he called that one out.

~Theo~