Is This What Tolerance Looks Like?
November 6, 2008 3 Comments
For the story behind the picture click below:
I liked what one attorney said,
“There’s something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote,” said Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer who heads a group called Freedom to Marry.
What does he think Democracy is all about?
wow.
You know, Laz, a Libertarian argument AGAINST democracy is that democracy is the tyranny of the many on the few. It’s an anarchist belief, but it has it’s points. What if “the majority” of the people decided a freeway through your property was more important than your home? Just because the majority wants something doesn’t make it right. Look at Nazi Germany as an extreme example.
And telling Mormons to go to hell is not tolerance. In my opinion, tolerance is “Let he who is without sin…” New Liberal America is a term I hadn’t heard…but no one’s cornered the market on intolerance yet…and if they had, I’m sure an over-reaching illegitimate federal authority would have moved quickly to bust that monopoly up… :-P
I hear you, in fact I agree. Just because a majority decides something, it does not make that decision just or what have you.
One of my favorite Kimisms is, “What’s popular is not always right, and what’s right is not always popular”.
But fortunately or unfortunately, when a vote is put on a ballot, majority wins. It wouldn’t be democratic if the side/candidate who got the least amount of votes won the election (Presidential election aside, where the popular vote doesn’t guarantee victory).
I like to think of ‘tolerance’ as recognizing and respecting others views, beliefs, practices without sharing them.
As for the novel term, keep in mind that this story came from a paper across the pond.