International Tolerance Day

[Silvan]

16 November is International Tolerance Day - how do you understand tolerance? Do you consider yourself tolerant? Can you think of any actions or events that promote tolerance?

[Dawn.]

I think this is such a wonderful day. I guess for me personally, it depends on the situation and the person on how tolerant I am.

[Proud90sKid]

I am tolerant. I am nice to foreign people and I do see them as people, however I personally feel like the over-tolerance of internationals in certain areas has pushed out the local english speaking culture in a lot of instances. I think America should take more of a "browse, but don't touch" relationship with foreigners. Don't force your culture or language on me. And please stop getting annoyed when I can't understand your thick accent (ie. not pronouncing syllables properly). We are only a "melting pot" because this country (founded by white Englishmen) is so great that people from lesser nations wanted to come here to pursue the ideal of the "American dream" during the 19th and 20th century.

When foreigners come here they mostly stick to themselves and create the same social exclusivity that they imagine english speaking Americans to have. Consider Miami for instance: over 65 percent hispanic. Hispanic influence has spread to other areas in south Florida and suddenly the local economic pressure demands that you need to speak Spanish fluently to get a lot of jobs. It is illegal to discriminate against a Spanish speaker for not speaking fluent English if they can still do the job properly, but apparently not illegal for businesses to expect an English speaker to have fluent Spanish. Typical PC bullshit. Even when that isn't an issue, you can get flat out denied a position just for not being Cuban and called a "gringo" in your own country. And its all just "their culture" and "them wanting to stick with themselves". Asians are similar.

Basically, I am all about supporting international culture, but when you come to America, don't try to turn our cities/towns into mini China or mini Cuba.

This is not in Current Events and Debates, so I don't want to start an argument. But I will point out the United States was not, in fact, founded by White Englishmen. It was stolen from people who were here long before the English ever came to Northern America. To this day those same people have currently been pushed to the very fringes of society. The White Englishmen who came were immigrants just like those you see today. Just something important to remember.

I believe we should actively try and make this world a better place, and I believe that requires acceptance more than tolerance. "Tolerance," to me, is what you do to deal with something you find uncomfortable and/or unpleasant, but that you deem necessary to do. Society will always be made up of different people and different cultures. I think it's important to be more inclusive and understanding, and to welcome others and be open to learning about and accepting them. This is not an "us" versus "them" kind of thing. We are all a part of this world, and we all have to work together if it's going to be sustainable, because the way it's going it won't be. It can be frustrating and confusing to have language barriers or not understand some customs or cultural beliefs, but it's important to try, or to at least honor and allow others the space to practice them. It goes a long way to creating a better world.

[Proud90sKid]

Originally Posted by Garyl

This is not in Current Events and Debates, so I don't want to start an argument. But I will point out the United States was not, in fact, founded by White Englishmen. It was stolen from people who were here long before the English ever came to Northern America. To this day those same people have currently been pushed to the very fringes of society. The White Englishmen who came were immigrants just like those you see today. Just something important to remember.

Thats where people go wrong in their thinking imo. We didnt immigrate here. We displaced and largely replaced the existing native American society. Our numbers quickly outnumbering theirs in the occupied territories.

Originally Posted by Proud90sKid

Thats where people go wrong in their thinking imo. We didnt immigrate here. We displaced and largely replaced the existing native American society. Our numbers quickly outnumbering theirs in the occupied territories.

We committed genocide. That's the founding history of America. That's a fact. It's also a fact that those same people we murdered, continue to be mistreated by the American government. We were colonizers who committed atrocities against the indigenuous people. That's a fact and, as such, we can share that country with immigrants. Whether they learn the language or not.

Originally Posted by Proud90sKid

Thats where people go wrong in their thinking imo. We didnt immigrate here. We displaced and largely replaced the existing native American society. Our numbers quickly outnumbering theirs in the occupied territories.

Yeah, we displaced people who have inhabited the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years. With us we brought unknown diseases which wiped out these Native populations by the thousands.

Anyways, I don't like the idea of "practicing tolerance" because, it's as someone else said — we should be practicing acceptance. Accept that we are on a planet with eight billion other human beings and many millions of non-human species. We only have one Earth, that has already been around for a few billion years; we humans have only been around for less than a percent of that four and half billion years.

We need to accept that no two people are alike, no two animal are alike, no two beings are alike! We all think differently, we function differently, we behave differently, we have different beliefs, we come from different backgrounds, all walks of life. We need to accept that everyone deserves to be treated like a human animal and all animals need to be treated like they're worthy.

[Silvan]

I'm happy this thread received many responses. However, my aim was to focus on tolerance rather than spark debates

I consider myself tolerant because I try to make everybody as comfortable in my presence as possible. It doesn't mean pleasing everyone - far from that! - it's more about being non-judgmental of other people's words, actions, appearance, problems etc. As far as these are not harmful, of course.
I'm aware that 'harmful' could mean different things to different people, but you get my idea

I understand what you were trying to do, but we live in a world of politically correct terms.

In this instance, that is acceptance as opposed to tolerance.

To me, tolerance means putting up with something you really don't want to bother with, putting up with people or beliefs you don't agree with for the sake of looking like the 'better person' when you really want to argue or be critical. I think that's being more harmful in the long run, as opposed to being helpful.

In addition to living in a word where politically correct terms are the way to go, we also live in a world where debates are healthy. So I think the debate Bibliophile, Garyl, and I started was perfectly fine. We appropriately expressed our opinions; we live in what should be a free society, and we should be allowed to express ourselves.

I accept that Proud90sKid has different beliefs, but do I tolerate it? Hell, no. Because that's where tolerance can be abused, and why the politically correct term accept comes into better use. It's perfectly fine to have debates in this instance, even if it's doesn't seem like it'll ever go anywhere

On the other hand, I do think debates belong in the more accurate forum as opposed to the 'General' forum.

Anyways, that's my tangent 'write for the hell of it' of the day.

[BoyNextDoor]

Originally Posted by Matter

16 November is International Tolerance Day - how do you understand tolerance? Do you consider yourself tolerant? Can you think of any actions or events that promote tolerance?

i think tolerance is when smth bothers u but u don’t make a fuss about it bcuz of how much of a pain it’d for u otherwise. i consider myself tolerant yeah!
and yep! my foster sis definitely promotes tolerance


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[Astro04]

I think I'm not really tolerant because happens often I get mad for apparently nothing. Maybe because I was ever the "second choice" in class. I learned how to "live and let live" even if sometimes is really hard to do it.