We've all seen it. The people that shut-down the moment you say something politically incorrect, that will shout you down the moment you say something that doesn't agree with their view of world. These same individuals will then go on to tell you that they are open-minded, enlightened, and that their viewpoint is supported by such and such, and thus is the right way to view the world. I know because I was raised that way.
Presented the way I presented it, it should be pretty clear that this isn't open-mindedness.
At this point, I'd ask that you watch the video. Click the spoiler afterwards.
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[spoiler]
[i]That[/i], is real open-mindedness. Contrast that with the people that will stop talking to you when you [i]use the wrong pronoun[/i], or think you can't have anything meaningful to say about a subject because of your race or gender (unless, of course, you agree with them). This man went to a group of people who [i]explicitly[/i] state that they hate him, and he still managed to sit down with them, at the risk of bodily harm. I can't imagine the level of maturity that man had to respond to "I hate everything about you" with "well, tell me why."
I think a lot of it stems from the racism that is inherent to "tolerance." That racism is the notion that whites don't have culture, or that they should know better.
Why is it that when a newly immigrated man from Puerto Rico hates working for female supervisors, it's "just his culture," but if a white man does it he's a misogynist trying to subject all women to servitude? Because people who make that argument think "their own" should know better, which is inherently racist.
We see the same thing here when Jay goes on a tirade. I just love that someone reporting to be as open-minded as her will come in here and cast blanket statements about how backwards we all are. Yes, I know the blanket part of that is just to get attention for Sapphire, but even if it was just one person you're still making assumptions.
A lot of the people on these forums are the children of divorced parents, the kids who grew up with their only "positive" male role models being action heroes, and their primary awareness of females coming from anime. If you honestly think someone like that is going to grow up with a healthy view of women, you're insane.
And that's just the point, shutting down at the sight of bigotry [i]is[/i] bigotry, as it ignores all the things (the culture) that brought a person to that point. Personally, I find a lot of people on the flood disgusting, and if asked I would probably agree with Jay on nearly every single issue.
That said, I'm not going to run away because I'm embarrassed to be seen with you, or because I consider myself better than you. I think that's tolerance. [/spoiler]
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Wait, when did we split stuff into right and left? More importantly, which side has ice cream?