We’re Really Nice, But… – Drop in the Ocean – Tolerate

We’re Really Nice, But…

There’s quite a lot of sometimes nasty debate, over what others say we should tolerate. But who has such authoritative power, they’ll make me hold my tongue, so I’ll want to cower? I don’t really need someone watching my language, and correct me when you think that I cross some line. You may not like what I say, but I’ll say it anyway, and if you’re gonna freak out, well, that’s your design.

You: “What he/she said is intolerant! He/she must be destroyed completely!”

You’re intolerant of a word, sentence or opinion uttered. It’s obvious that you have absolutely no respect for the speaker, since you think that whatever his intolerant word/sentence/opinion is, a retaliatory attack is called for, with character assassination at the very least, as we always hope that language like “destroy” isn’t taken literally. It’s also obvious that he’s said something that’s specifically intolerable to you. Or is it?

What happens if you find out that someone you like and respect, said basically the same thing in the past, and therefore disagrees with your current intolerance of the same word or words?

Before social media and, (in this case I’m about to bring up), especially before Twitter existed, if we went and stood on a street corner and said the same thing about someone to people passing by, most of the passers-by would likely shrug their shoulders, walk on, and probably think you’re a little weird.

But that won’t cut it these days. Nope, now it’s a movement, regardless of how immature or just plain dumb it is, some organizers on Twitter will manage to convince a flock of equally intelligent sheep to back the destruction of someone. Not because they’ve been proven to be intolerant, (which isn’t against the law in any “free” countries by the way), but because a bunch of nitwits on Twitter say they are.


It’s a very clever thing really, that Twitter. It’s quite a remarkable tool for creating doubt, for obfuscation of facts and for advancing certain one-sided narratives being ordered by those running Twitter, intentionally. Maybe we should be a bit less tolerant of services like Twitter, when they are silently but covertly aiding in the division of the masses through manipulation.

Before social media, if I used the word tolerate at all, I used it in speech concerning food, mostly. Even now it’s not a word that I regularly use, which some tweeter would likely say is because I’m intolerant of something or someone, and definitely NOT because I’m able to form my own opinions.

“Dangerous” opinions will likely be one of the next speech classes to be condemned and will face word-reassignment initiatives that will approve or outlaw them so that we can “advance” as a species some more.

Take corned beef for example. I’ve never been able to tolerate the taste of corned beef, and I am half-Irish by heritage. The reason I can’t tolerate it is because it tastes horrible to my uniquely installed set of taste buds. But believe it or not, when I say that I can’t stand (or tolerate) corned-beef, several people will say something like, “Oh man, you don’t know what you’re missing,” even though I clearly do know.

It doesn’t matter that “just trying” corned-beef gave me an absolute surety that I don’t like it at all, (and in fact I hate it), or that I gave in at least two other times later in my life, and the result was no less disgusting than the first time, many years ago. I actually AM intolerant when it comes to corned-beef. It’s not an opinion. If I forced myself to eat it, I would throw up. It would affect me physically.

I like cucumber sandwiches, either with some salt and pepper or with salad dressing. I’ve liked them since I was a little kid. I saw my mother eat one, and that’s how I got started. Back then I also liked ketchup sandwiches. I don’t eat ketchup sandwiches anymore.

I’ve been laughed at when I’ve talked about my love of cucumber and ketchup sandwiches at different points in my life, but I’ve never thought of anyone laughing as being intolerant. But today, I could start a Twitter account, and within a short time literally have hundreds of fans who agree with me and say that those laughing at me were mean and intolerant, and then start a “movement” and a twitter-mob.

At any time in history before now, you’d be laughed at and called insane if you suggested that a “movement” as I just outlined in the last paragraph, could be formed in a short time, if at all. But we all know it’s very possible to do this today.

The word, now more than ever, focuses on the concoction of some imagined “right” which we have, (well, some of us have), which empowers us to have our way, whatever that may be, up to and including destruction of anyone or anything that we cannot tolerate, regardless of how petty our reactions may seem to those who dare to be intolerant of us.

_{We’re Really Nice, But… © free-reign 2019}

Sources for images used in this post:

Corned Beef Sandwich: Image by afridayinapril from Pixabay
Tug of War: Image by DarkCordial from Pixabay
Smiley: Image by Christian Dorn from Pixabay

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