mother wrote:It's the hate and intolerance that gives it a nice je ne se quoi ;)
I'm going to get flamed for this, because it's intolerant.
You know what I hate? Tolerance. I think the idea of "tolerance" is stupid, at least in its current, bastardized state. I really do, and I'm really tired of people who find out that a company does something that is considered "intolerant" suddenly declaring that the company is evil. What makes a company so intolerant? Sticking to the principals of their founder? Having, as a client, a group that is anti-something? Or maybe it's just closing the store down on a certain day because of a specific holiday or Holy day. What's wrong with intolerance? Why should we all have to agree with everyone else about everything? The only time intolerance is WRONG is when an action is taken against someone - like genocide. "Tolerance" doesn't mean I have to agree with you. It just means "agree to disagree" and then just leave it alone.
Maybe companies shouldn't shut down on Good Friday, ever, because *gasp* that's a Christian holiday and it's intolerant of every other religious group. Maybe they shouldn't shut down on Christmas either, for the same reason. Oh, but no one complains about that because it's a day off of work and it's to their benefit to stay quiet about it. To truly be tolerant, one would have to either take away every holiday because somehow, someone is going to be offended by it, or to make sure EVERY holiday for every person who could potentially interact with the business is observed. The former won't happen because people like their days off. The latter won't happen because no business would EVER happen.
According to people who lobby for "tolerance" - companies with a Christian foundation that shut down on Sundays shouldn't do that, because that's insensitive and intolerant to the atheists and Muslims and Jews and everyone else who wants to go to that business on Sunday. Companies with a Jewish foundation that shut down on Saturdays (Sabbath) shouldn't do that, because that's insensitive and intolerant to the atheists and Muslims and Christians who what to go to that company on Saturday.
From all I can tell, for Chick-Fil-A in particular, the anger stems from the fact that they dared to cater food to an anti-merry organization. How does that make Chick-Fil-A itself intolerant? I could understand irateness stemming from an incident where, say, a merry rights group requested catering from CFA and they refused. Sure, that's probably bad business practice and maybe they shouldn't do that. But that's not what happened. And this is the kind of thing that I see over and over again. An organization (A) enters a business relationship with another organization (B) that supports/protests a particular idea, and suddenly organization A is the evil entity and worthy of mockery, disdain, slander, and boycotting. Not because Organization A directly states a stance on something, but because they happened to collect money for goods or services rendered to someone else with a stance. And I find that to be wrong.
By staging protests against Organization A, doesn't that mean the protesters are now intolerant of Organization A, the very people the protesters are claiming is intolerant? Since I don't see Organization A going out with pitchforks and torches against the protesters, while the protesters are actively trying to put the company out of business, it makes me wonder who is really the greater evil here.
tol·er·ance
noun /ˈtäl(ə)rəns/
tolerances, plural
1. The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with
tol·er·ate
verb /ˈtäləˌrāt/
tolerated, past participle; tolerated, past tense; tolerates, 3rd person singular present; tolerating, present participle
1. Allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference
2. Accept or endure (someone or something unpleasant or disliked) with forbearance
in·tol·er·ance
noun /inˈtälərəns/
intolerances, plural
1. Unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one's own
[ /end soap box ]
Go ahead, ostracize me now. You know you want to.
CT | I saw HitAnyKey42 on wine.woot! and clicked "I want one!"