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Journal by Azuma Hazuki
Tolerance Is Not A Moral Precept.

This is a thorough once-over giving the lie to the "conservatives'" self-serving bullshit squealing that "Butbutbutbutbut if you don't tolerate my intolerance you're a hypocrite!" The short version, as put forth in the article, is this: tolerance is a peace treaty, not a suicide pact.

Put another way, it's social technology, just like laws. It allows us, in an ever-more-connected global society, to exist and function. Like a treaty it covers those, and only those, who are party to it.

This means that if you're a genocidal fucking psychopath then no, Virginia, we do not have to "tolerate" your unhinged ramblings. You are cancer in the body politic. You have gleefully ripped your human card to shreds and dropped the pieces in an incinerator, cackling like a hyena on PCP at how you have "owned the libs." You have placed yourselves outside the treaty. We are not obligated to put up with your shit.

tl;dr: if you can't behave like a civilized human being, don't be surprised when you get treated like a rabid animal. Read and be better, or don't, it's your choice, but don't bitch when you get your find-outs.
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 01, @01:31PM (9 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 01, @01:31PM (#1304195) Journal

    There is no one-size-fits-all version of authoritarianism.

    To the contrary, they all tend to be one-size-fits-all. They just disagree on implementation and authority.

    Runaway's comments have made it very clear that he considers violence and mass murder an appropriate response. The means he supports to accomplish his goals are wrong. It's one thing when combatants are killed on a battlefield. But he goes far beyond killing people who are engaged in combat. He's said he would like to kill all progressives. Obviously he's not directly doing the killing, but he has stated he supports killing all progressives. That's mass murder. That's wrong, and it's not something you should be defending or trying to justify.

    Keep in mind the subject of this journal - the principle argument is that tolerance is a sort of "peace treaty" which when abrogated, implies that the other side(s) can and must act in response in ways that would normally be wrong morally. Runaway's statements fit in that constraint - if 50 million progressives are mass enslaving the rest of the US, then their killing though wrong is an appropriate response to the end of tolerance.

    My take is that there are several ways this could play out. The various authoritarian-leaning groups may eventually cool down - my take is that a lot of present day turmoil is driven by the stress of labor competition from the developing world combined with poor policy responses in the US. Second, that one or more groups cross the line and start attacking each other for real. I think some of the organizers of the January 6 protest may have attempted to provoke law enforcement into a battle (which would have crossed the line into insurrection for me). The scale and duration of such a conflict is beyond me at present, but it could eventually result in a civil war.

    That is not the correct response to authoritarianism. There's a difference between civil disobedience and lawlessness. Civil disobedience means following the law except the portions of the law that are unjust. There is precedent for this throughout history. In the Bible, Jesus followed the law ("Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's.") except when it was unjust. Martin Luther King didn't ignore the law and violate it whenever he wanted. There was plenty of civil disobedience, but it involved refusing to follow laws that were unjust. I strongly support jury nullification, which is effectively another form of civil disobedience. Juries should refuse to convict people when the law is unjust or the legal process is unfair.

    This is a sound argument, but there's a but. "Tolerance is not a moral precept." To apply morality to it is to miss the point of the argument.

    Instead of pointless complaining about a potential future conflict that probably won't follow a moral path, let's look at preventative maintenance. My take is that there's several big things that would forestall any sort of large scale conflict: maintain equal treatment under the law, especially by identifiable ethnicity - this helps prevent balkanization [wikipedia.org]; reduce corruption - prevents what's happening now in Russia, for example; reduce regulation - especially the misapplication of one-size-fits-all law (minimum wage laws have helped devastate Puerto Rico which is greatly poorer than mainland US, resulted in about half the population immigrating to the US) and laws that aggressively harm economic/societal progress (the pharmaceutical gamble is a good example of this, all that regulation and it's still a lottery ticket [soylentnews.org] whether you get a viable drug); and sensible compromises on big conflict topics (immigration, crime and police, taxation and government spending, meddling in schools and personal lives, etc).

    Finally, people should chill a bit. Runaway didn't go anywhere with his argument for when killing 50 million liberals was justified. But it was in response to other needlessly provocative arguments. Too often I read arguments about various groups doing the mean things. After all, the very first sentence of the journal is:

    This is a thorough once-over giving the lie to the "conservatives'" self-serving bullshit squealing that "Butbutbutbutbut if you don't tolerate my intolerance you're a hypocrite!"

    There's not much point about complaining about tolerating the intolerance, when you're part of the problem. No tolerance existed in the first place so it couldn't be turned off for alleged intolerance.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 01, @05:34PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 01, @05:34PM (#1304236)

    ^

    That is why so few bother engaging khalliw, at the end he just repeats his opinion like he just proved simething.

    "No tolerance existed in the first place so it couldn't be turned off for alleged intolerance."

    He just lives in a different reality where the KKK are ackshually democrats and J6 was some rowdy protesters. Khallow is a pure propaganda account, no care for discussion beyond a platform to repost their screed.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 03, @03:02AM (7 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03, @03:02AM (#1304432) Journal

      That is why so few bother engaging khalliw, at the end he just repeats his opinion like he just proved simething.

      That's a big reason I quote. Here, the telling line is

      This is a thorough once-over giving the lie to the "conservatives'" self-serving bullshit squealing that "Butbutbutbutbut if you don't tolerate my intolerance you're a hypocrite!"

      The intolerance in that quote is self-evident. When someone is this foaming in the mouth at "conservatives", they're intolerant.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03, @05:04PM (6 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03, @05:04PM (#1304534)

        Sulk all you want, you're the one avoiding simple facts so you can preserve your precious world view. Thought you weren't a conservative, better check your mask it seems to be slipping!

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 03, @11:31PM (5 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03, @11:31PM (#1304614) Journal
          You have yet to mention any of those "simple facts".
          • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04, @07:48AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04, @07:48AM (#1304689)

            The facts have been repeatedly mentioned, khallow. You have just consistently refused, or been unable, to recognize them. You have been spanked. You can stop trying to argue, now. You have lost.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04, @05:08PM (3 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04, @05:08PM (#1304761)

            Playing dumb is not a good look, just makes you look dumb or sociopathic. We all know you're not THAT dumb, so that leaves slightly dim sociopath.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 06, @07:11PM (2 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 06, @07:11PM (#1305042) Journal
              Fortunately, you post anonymously, so we can't tell who is playing dumb here. Good look or not, it won't blowback on you, right?
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08, @04:46PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08, @04:46PM (#1305322)

                Calling out fascists has no blowback, unless the fascists gain full power and then you'll start hunting down your detractors. You don't have yo go full fascist tho, so many options for you khallow!

                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 09, @05:33AM

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 09, @05:33AM (#1305450) Journal
                  Why bother with detractoring detractors? Your state of mind is sufficient punishment for me - babbling about imaginary fascists because someone disagreed with you on the internets. Heavy entertainment that.