Not defending your right to bigotry

06/11/2014

Hello. My name is Jasper and I consider myself to be liberal. I believe that you're free to believe whatever you want, conduct yourself in any manner you see fit, until you draw your last breath. You fill your boots, friend. This is a free world (I'm taking liberties with the word "free" there, but you're as free as anyone else!).

A criticism oft-levied against noisy liberals such as myself is the hypocrisy of their intolerance of people who disagree with them. From the outside, that certainly may seem hypocritical, if you're a giant, self-serving asshat. But why should a liberal defend your freedom to preclude the freedom of others?

I fucking do not.

I am sick and tired of reading this:

This is people subverting tolerance for their own personal gain. This is not someone who understands tolerance. This is someone so far removed from tolerance, that the only way they can defend against the liberal with a backbone is to say "well, you're not OK with me doing whatever the fuck I want! Not very tolerant, is it?!"

Allow me to be perfectly clear: I consider myself to be highly tolerant. Tolerance is a renewable, sustainable source of love. It sees your behaviour that is vilified, yet has no byproducts but love and happiness and it says "You go for it. Don't listen to anyone who'd try to stop you - they're wrong, not you".

My tolerance does not extend to the self-serving prick who tries to stop the aforementioned behaviour and, when questioned, says "this is my view, and I am entitled to it!". That is oppressive and it is wrong, and don't any of you believe it when you hear it. This person is trying to hijack your beliefs to use them to keep you from effectively opposing them. This person is trying to stop you from harming no-one and being happy and they're the one in the wrong. You have every right to stand up to them, even if they question your capacity for tolerance in the process. Give them a big, fat fuck you, and tell them your pal Jasper is good for double.

Tolerance is an act of love, and it is OK to not tolerate an act of hate. I support the freedom that allows you to exercise your blinkered, hateful, bigoted bullshit, but I do not necessarily support your opinions and I will not lie down and watch you spread them.

In case you need a bit of context for this, I'm glad Brendan Eich is gone as CEO of Mozilla. I don't use any of their software, but I do respect their morals, and having a CEO with an (as-yet) un-addressed history of bigotry does not coincide with their values as I perceive them, be they values pertaining to the web or humanity or both. All you had to do was apologise for being a hateful fuck, Brendan, and you couldn't even manage that, could you?

Email me about this