Tolerance, Compassion, and Knowing People Personally
I keep running into politically left wing types or touchie-feelie Christians (some of whom may be somewhat conservative, which surprises me) on social media who assume the reason I must oppose certain things, such as–
-Mass Muslim immigration
-Allowing biological men into women’s bathrooms and fitting rooms under transgender laws
is due to some kind of personal animosity towards these groups of people.
The reason I object to, or am concerned about, things such as mass Muslim immigration or transgender bathroom bills has NOTHING to do with personal hatred on my part towards Muslims or transgender people.
I find this so frustrating that this is assumed about me from the start, and this assumption occurs constantly on Twitter and other blogs.
If you bother to get to know me, or read many of my blog posts on this blog, or stop and ask me my feelings about things (instead of JUST ASSUMING you know why I must hold thus- and- so an opinion on a given topic), you would discover I’m pretty laid back about things, more so than the people who yell at me online.
I really do not care if a person is male, female, white, black, Asian, Latino, Muslim, Christian, atheist, Jewish, Hindu, left wing, right wing, Democrat, Republican, conservative, Transgender, CIS Hetero, homosexual, feminist, or prefers country music to heavy metal.
I do not choose my friends and who I am polite to based on their skin color, sexual orientation, ethnic heritage, and on.
I have always been willing to be friends with almost anyone (I will note exceptions at the end of this post).
I happen to be right of center politically, as well as regarding most social issues.
This does not mean I agree with all right wingers, conservative Christians, or Republicans on every issue, because I do not.
(Or, in other cases, I may agree with these groups in principle on a specific issue, but not in their proposed solutions to that issue.)
I was a Republican from youth up until a year or so ago. I’m sort of wondering now if I should leave the GOP (Republican Party) and become an Independent.
Even though I am right wing and hold pretty traditional values, I do not live in an echo chamber.
In real life, and on social media, I am now, or have been in the past, acquaintances or friends with people who hold to views that differ from my own, or who make life style choices I would not do myself or agree with.
I am a right winger but have made it a point on some of my social media to follow liberal news accounts, and some of the individuals I follow on social media are Democrats / Liberals (progressives).
As a matter of fact, I think I probably follow more left wing news sites and individual left wing people on my “sololoner” Twitter than I do right wingers. At least that is what it feels like – I have not sat down and actually counted who I am following.
I started re-evaluating my own beliefs (political and religious) a few years ago.
Because I have been willing to question deeply held beliefs of my own and honestly hear out, with an open mind, the views of people who differ from mine, I’ve changed my mind on some topics.
I am also willing to concede that some of my beliefs that I used to hold in the past were in error, either maybe totally or partially.
I used to be more right wing than I am now, though I was never a far, far right wing-nut. I am now more of a moderate right winger these days.
About two years ago, I guess it was, one of my long-time hard core right wing, Republican, Christian friends became infuriated at me that I moved a smidge or two towards the political center, to the point she cussed me out several times over and dumped our friendship (I blogged about her in an older post).
I haven’t heard from her in two years because of my change on political and religious topics (among a few other reasons).
But my change on political and religious subjects in the last 2, 3 years peeved that long time friend of mine off badly enough that she screamed hateful things at me before dropping me like a hot potato.
This ex-friend of mine thinks I am now a far left wing, Democrat, God-hating atheist (no, I’m none of those things). But hopefully this situation I had with this friend of mine gives you some insight into how I’ve changed the last few years.
Can you say the same about yourself?
Are you willing to be very honest with your political and religious beliefs and consider maybe you are wrong about some subjects and have been for decades? Are you willing to really, truly consider that beliefs you’ve deeply held since childhood are not actually true?
Are you willing to seriously entertain that maybe your religious and/or political “opponents” are not as evil, bad, or wrong as you assume them to be?
And are you willing to consider that maybe your opponents may be correct about a few things?
Are you humble enough to address any of those things, or admit them to yourself, never mind me or anyone else?
I can be stubborn and very opinionated, but there is also this portion of my personality that is willing to hear out opposing views and to be open-minded and even-handed.
As I said above, from my childhood into adulthood, I’ve gotten along fine with, and been friends with, people who hold differing views from mine, or who have different skin color, ethnic heritage, or sexual orientation from mine.
So, when I get on Twitter and post links that speak up in disagreement with allowing mass Muslim immigration, it’s not because I hate all Muslims or even think all Muslims are terrorists.
When I link to material disagreeing with companies allowing biological men to enter into women’s restrooms, it’s not because I have a personal dislike of transgender women (i.e., biological males who think of themselves as female).
I don’t care if someone wants to be Muslim and worship Allah.
I don’t care all too much if a biological male wants to consider himself female and wear skirts, high heels, and lip stick.
TOLERANCE AND COMPASSION
Tolerance does not mean agreeing with, endorsing, or celebrating, someone else’s choices in life.
Too many left-wingers, especially the younger ones, have a difficult time grasping that concept: tolerating another group of people does not mean you have to AGREE with that group, or that you have to LIKE their choices or beliefs.
I don’t agree with Muslims (regarding Islam), and I find the concept of biological males wanting to live as females a little weird, but I don’t ‘hate’ either group.
If I were truly “intolerant” of Muslim immigrants and Trans persons, I would be out and about bashing in the heads of Muslims and Trans people with a baseball bat for being Muslims or Trans, or I would be advocating that others do this (which I do not advocate).
I don’t sit around sticking pins into Voo-Doo dolls of Muslims or Transgender people.
I don’t harbor personal ill-will towards groups of people who I may disagree with or consider questionable.
YOU’RE CLOSE FRIENDS WITH JOE THE MUSLIM, AND JOE IS SWELL
I think it’s great that one of your neighbors is a Muslim guy, and he sometimes smiles and waves at you when you go jogging past him in the mornings.
Maybe his Muslim wife even baked you cookies and brought you over a tray when you were new to the neighborhood. That was nice of her. (I type that without sarcasm.)
I think it’s great that your friend at work is a Muslim who you truly believe would never strap on a suicide vest and blow up your other co-workers.
The fact that your personal Muslim friend, Muslim neighbor, or Muslim immigrant at the shelter you volunteer at, is not violent does not change the fact that there is still a percentage of other Muslims in the world, and in the U.S.A., who do in fact feel called by their religion to kill Non-Muslims.
And they do. We’re all the time seeing examples in the news of guys who say they were motivated by Islam to kill “infidels.”
It is those religiously-motivated, violent Muslims who I am concerned about, not the “Average Joe” Muslim guy in the United States who has no intention of taking a rifle into a shopping mall and shooting as many people as he can.
Video: By the Numbers The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics
I do not have to be personal friends with Muslims or Transgender people (or with whomever else or whatever other group) to object to certain state-wide or national legal or political laws, rules, or phenomenon which I believe puts my safety, or life, at risk.
Concerning immigration:
There are indeed Bible verses that talk about helping people, including foreigners who may be visiting your nation.
(I’ve read the Bible myself. You don’t have to cite Bible verses to me.)
However, you and I are open and free to disagree about which is the best and safest method to deal with issues such as Muslim immigration, or how to accommodate Transgener people in public, and so on and so forth.
Me caring about my personal safety – and that of my fellow Americans – is not automatically or necessarily an “un-Biblical,” “hateful,” “regressive,” or “unloving” position.
I am exercising compassion and prudence. I don’t want any of my fellow Americans, (including Muslims and transgender people), to be shot, blown up, stabbed, raped, or killed.
If you’re one of those people online who scream and yell at me because I don’t support open, unlimited, unvetted, and/or sloppy Muslim immigration, or biological men being in women’s dressing rooms (or goodness knows what else you’re yelling at me about):
My priorities are not the same as yours, and maybe my idea of how things should be dealt with differ from yours, but I am no less compassionate than you, nor am I being unloving or narrow- minded.
Edit (Sept 20, 3016). By the way, I don’t have much confidence in the American government to vet Muslim immigrants. Check this out:
(I have additional comments below this long list of links):
(Link): DHS granted citizenship to hundreds of illegal immigrants from terrorist countries
(Link): Report: U.S. Government Erroneously Granted Citizenship to 858 Immigrants With Deportation Orders
They should have been deported, but hundreds of illegal immigrants from dangerous countries were instead granted citizenship by Homeland Security because officials never checked their fingerprints to find out their real identities, the department’s inspector general said in a staggering report Monday.
At least two of those who got citizenship have since been investigated for ties to terrorism, and two others managed to gain jobs in secure areas of airports.
Perhaps most stunning is that Homeland Security and federal prosecutors have let the illegal immigrants turned citizens get away with their potential fraud. Charges were brought in just two of the more than 800 cases identified.
The report was released as the country was learning the identity of the suspect in this weekend’s New York and New Jersey terror bombings — and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump connected the two, saying the U.S. is inviting those kinds of attacks if it can’t assure Americans it’s screening applications correctly.
(Link): More than 800 immigrants with pending deportation orders mistakenly granted U.S. citizenship
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants who had pending deportation orders from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud.
(Link): U.S. mistakenly granted citizenship to hundreds of immigrants
(Link): US Government Mistakenly Grants Citizenship to Hundreds of Immigrants
(Link): Flaws in Fingerprint Records Allowed Hundreds to Become U.S. Citizens
(Link): DHS: 858 illegals were granted US citizenship by mistake, ‘but the problem could be even worse’
(Link): N.Y.-area bombings raise immigrant screening concerns
(Link): More Than 800 Immigrants Mistakenly Granted Citizenship
Sept 19, 2016
The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to (Link): national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal (Link): Homeland Security audit released Monday.
….The report does not identify any of the immigrants by name, but Inspector General John Roth’s auditors said they were all from “special interest countries” — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those countries.
DHS said the findings reflect what has long been a problem for immigration officials — old paper-based records containing fingerprint information that can’t be searched electronically.
MOTIVES and MIND READING
I get tired of people attributing motives to me I do not hold.
Don’t assume because I don’t want biological men in women’s rooms, for example, this must ‘obviously’ mean I secretly harbor hatred for Trans people.
Or, if I disagree with allowing an influx of Muslim immigrants into the United States (or Europe), I must secretly hate all Muslims. I do not hate Trans people, nor do I hate all Muslims.
Many liberals I’ve bumped into on social media think they are mind-readers or heart readers. Liberals love to assign motives to people.
Many liberals who have Tweeted rude things at me on Twitter act as though they can read my mind, and they continue to attribute motives to me I do not hold, even after I explain to them my motives for why I believe what I do.
I have pointed out several times over to liberals on Twitter that I have no hatred in my heart towards Trans people, for instance, but many of these liberals are still suspicious.
These types of liberals are paranoid and cannot imagine anyone being opposed to things such as men being in women’s bathrooms, or Muslim immigration, over PRAGMATIC concerns based on REALTIY.
No, they assume that the ONLY reason a person can feel shaky about dudes being in women’s rooms, or allowing a lot of Muslims into the nation at once, must be due to personal prejudice or hatred.
You liberals who operate like this need to get out of YOUR bubbles and start following more right wing news sites online.
Start befriending – that is, begin sincerely befriending – right wingers.
Get to know right wingers as people, not as stereotypes you hear about from left wing sources such as “Raw Story,” “MSNBC” cable news, and so on.
Whether you want to believe it or not, when people disagree with which ever of your pet topics (Muslim immigration, transgenderism, whatever it may be) it’s not always because the person disagreeing with you “hates” the people in question, it’s not because they hate Muslims, transgenders, or other types of people.
I find that it’s liberals who are actually overly preoccupied with identity politics.
It’s liberals who deem certain groups as being more important than others, based on things such as skin color, sexual orientation, and so on (see (Link): this post for more on that) – many right wingers find this liberal tendency perplexing.
Right wingers cannot figure out why American liberals do things like (and this is just one example) irrationally, rabidly protect Islam and Muslims….
Even though many Muslims the world over have a proven, consistent track record of being violent and killing other people, including homosexuals for being homosexual, in Middle East nations…
But American liberals are willing to throw American Christians under the bus over things like refusing, out of religious convictions, (not due to personal animosity), to bake a wedding cake for homosexual marriages.
For the most part, right wingers and conservatives don’t care about your sexual orientation, skin color, biological sex, or sexual habits, and are judging you based on your character, and other traits like that.
(The only types of conservatives who may care about some of these things are a sub-group called ‘social conservatives’ but that’s another post for another day.
Edit. But even the majority of social conservatives don’t hate homosexuals and other groups, even if they don’t agree with that group’s behavior or opinions. Again, though, that would probably be worthy of a blog post all its own, so I won’t discuss it much more here.)
Left wingers, however, want everyone to recognize, accept, celebrate, and agree with things like anyone and everyone’s sexual behavior (except, hypocritically, an adult choosing to remain a virgin or being celibate – rarely do liberals defend adult virginity or celibacy; they usually mock or attack both).
EXCEPTIONS
There are a few number of groups of people I have a burning hatred for, but their religious beliefs, skin color, and so on, has nothing to do with it.
Off the top of my head, here are the few types of people I loathe, who I hate, and who I despise.
I make no apologies to anyone for hating these particular types of people:
ANIMAL ABUSERS
Any person of any ethnic group, age (even kids under the age of ten), sexual orientation, skin color, nationality, or religion, who is intentionally cruel and abusive to animals (which includes sexual activity – people who have sexual relations with an animal), should be horribly tortured for days on end before being shot in the head and killed immediately by law enforcement or some governmental agency for the abuse.
Damn skippy I am 100% serious about that.
I have zero sympathy, mercy, or compassion for animal abusers. I don’t care about their age, skin color, religion, nationality, or whatever.
(To any Christians reading this: in the context of this particular subject, I don’t give a damn about any Bible verses about grace, forgivness, we’re all sinners, etc. Animal abusers can rot in Hell, as far as I am concerned.)
I am aware of the fact that 99% of people reading this will think that I am over-reacting, being a nut, etc. I don’t care. These are my feelings on this topic. I’ve been this way on this subject since I was a child.
BULLIES
From the time I was a kid, I have hated people who exploit or abuse people who are weaker than themselves.
I don’t like seeing people who are physically bigger and stronger beating up on people who are physically smaller or weaker.
I don’t like healthy adults taking financial advantage of naïve, or too-trusting senior citizens.
I don’t like mentally healthy or self confident people who walk on, yell at, exploit, or verbally abuse people who tend to be shy, soft spoken, or who have low self esteem.
Any time you see an imbalance – physical, mental, whatever – where the bigger, more powerful person is beating on, raping, stealing from or emotionally abusing another person – I’m opposed to it.
Bullying in whatever form it takes, regardless of whoever the aggressor or victim happens to be (whether one or both of them are black, white, Asian, homosexual, hetero, Muslim, Christian, atheist, whatever), makes me very angry.
BULLIES AND MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS
If you support Muslim immigration and view the immigrants as the weak underdog in need of protection, I do not fully agree with you on this, so please don’t try to exploit my hatred of bullies to argue in favor of your position on this online.
I don’t want to see Muslims, such as ISIS cell members, sneak into the USA as immigrants, pretending to be harmless, law-abiding individuals, so they can later blow up or shoot innocent Americans.
In my view, safety almost always out-weighs political correctness, or lovey dovey, Christianese “help your neighbor, and put your personal safety aside’” concerns.
You and I will never agree on this, so please do not bother to Tweet me to bicker with me about it.
In the last few years, Europe allowed many, many Muslim immigrants into their nations, and some of those Muslim immigrants repaid that gesture by forming rape gangs and raping non-Muslim European women.
There are Muslim sex trafficking groups in the UK, who rape Non-Muslim British girls.
It is a fact that Muslim immigrants, some of them, have been raping, looting, and attacking Non-Muslims in Europe. However, some of you in your Twitter accounts argue that this is all false or invented by “right wing media.”
Muslim immigrant violence against Non-Muslims is not a story fabricated by conservatives – it is a reality.
Your friend “Joe the Muslim immigrant” may be a nice, non-rapey guy, but there are a hell of a lot of other Muslim immigrants who are indeed raping women in Europe, or a few here and there who have been shooting (or stabbing) people in the U.S.A. (and their motive is religious- based).
(Link): San Bernardino shooters were radicalized ‘for quite some time,’ FBI says
As a matter of fact, left wing media and/or left wing political figures in Europe largely remain silent on violence by Muslim immigrants and actively try to cover it up.
Left wing media (especially if European), if they do bother to report on Muslim immigrant attacks, generally refuse to use the word “Muslim” in the headlines or stories but instead refer to the men as “youths” or “Pakistani” or some other code word. It’s ridiculous.
Here are examples (instead of tossing a fit about if these are right wing sources, ask, “Is what they report true?,” and, “Why aren’t left wing media reporting on these crimes?”):
(I have additional comments below this long list of links):
(Link): It’s not only Germany that covers up mass sex attacks by migrant men… Sweden’s record is shameful (January 2016)
It took days for police to acknowledge the extent of the mass attacks on women celebrating New Year’s Eve in Cologne. The Germans were lucky; in Sweden, similar attacks have been taking place for more than a year and the authorities are still playing catch up.
Only now is the truth emerging, both about the attacks and the cover-ups. Stefan Löfven, our Prime Minister, has denounced a ‘double betrayal’ of women and has promised an investigation. But he ought to be asking this: what made the police and even journalists cover up the truth?
(Link): ‘Easy Meat.’ Britain’s Muslim Rape Gang Cover-Up (August 2016)
Excerpt:
Some scandals are so massive that they’re simply hard to believe. As many as one million white English children may have been the victims of Muslim rape gangs, better known as grooming gangs, in towns up and down Great Britain.
I’m pretty sure the following is considered a LEFT WING paper – I note that the MALE journalist of this piece apparently thinks that unwanted male groping of women is not a big deal, not so much as rape is (what a sexist attitude – rape may be more serious than groping, but women do NOT want to be groped by strangers):
(Link): This cover-up of sex assaults in Sweden is a gift for xenophobes by Andrew Brown, Jan 2016 (The Guardian)
(Link): Russia steps into Berlin ‘rape’ storm claiming German cover-up
Jan 2016 -The alleged rape of a 13-year-old Russian-speaking girl in Berlin, supposedly by asylum-seekers, has fuelled anti-migrant protests from Germany’s large Russian community.
(Link): Cover-up: The Swedish Left’s Sacrifice of Women to Political Correctness
Excerpts:
Feb 2015, by S. Duke –
Once an extremely safe land, violent crime in Sweden has increased 300 percent since 1975. That year, (Link): write Scandinavian journalists Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard, “421 rapes were reported to the police; in 2014, it was 6,620. That is an increase of 1,472%.” Why is 1975 significant?
Because that’s the year the Swedish government decided to adopt an immigration regime that would transform Sweden into a “multicultural” country.
This is also significant because 77.6 percent of the country’s rapists are identified as “foreigners” (and that’s significant because in Sweden, “foreigner” is generally synonymous with “immigrant from Muslim country”).
And even this likely understates the issue, since the Swedish government — in an effort to obscure the problem — records second-generation Muslim perpetrators simply as “Swedes.”
Moreover, writes Carlqvist and Hedegaard, “A new trend reached Sweden with full force over the past few decades: gang rape — virtually unknown before in Swedish criminal history. The number of gang rapes (Link):): increased spectacularly between 1995 and 2006. Since then no studies of them have been undertaken.”
The last line gets at a different trend: A refusal to investigate the nature of crime in Sweden for fear that the truth will contradict multiculturalist dogma.
(Link): German Cops: We Were Ordered To Remove The Word ‘Rape’ From Migrant Criminal Report
In my view, some (many? Most?) of the Muslim immigrants are the bullies, and the Europeans are the innocent parties who need protecting.
I am sorry that the X percentage of “rotten apples” are ruining things for the Muslim immigrants who may otherwise be harmless, but I don’t feel that the safety of girls and women (and of men) should be ignored all to be “touchy feely” or politically correct about Muslim immigration.
And again, no, I don’t harbor personal hatred against all Muslims.
CONCLUSION
I have in fact been friends with people who differ from me in real life and online, and I’ve gotten along just fine with them.
We sometimes agree to disagree with each other on some topics.
The fact that I disgree with you about ‘Topic X,’ which pertains to ‘Group of People Z,’ does not mean I necessarily hate “People Z.”
All in all, I probably don’t give a rat’s ass about “People Z” and don’t give them much thought in my day to day life.
If People Z want to pray to a deity named Hoobie-Zoobie, that is fine with me.
If People Z want to wear pink shirts with orange polka dots and plaid, more power to them.
If People Z are born with green hair, great for them.
If People Z prefer to have sex with people who have two ears on their left knee cap, I couldn’t care less.
I may personally not agree with or like green hair, or believe in the deity Hoobie-Zoobie, I don’t want to have sex with people who have ears on their knees, I think pink shirts with orange polka dots with plaid is tacky, but I don’t hate the people who are into that stuff.
(I do not hate People Z, unless they fall into my two exceptions above: if they are all animal abusers or are bullies who steal lunch money from old granny ladies who have dementia, for instance.)
I don’t have to go out and personally friend a few people from ‘People Z’ group to draw conclusions about how “Topic X” should be handled.
How about you? Do you practice what you preach at me?
Do you go out of your way to get to genuinely know right wingers, Christians, Republicans, and conservatives on a one-on-one basis?
Do you sincerely try to have an open mind when reading their opinions, and think, “Hmm, these guys may be at least somewhat correct about this one issue? Maybe “my side” is wrong about this – even if it’s only partially, and we need to re-think this?”
Or do you rush ahead to see how you can argue against their views (you’re in “reaction” mode, not “comprehension” mode)? Is your knee-jerk reaction to smear them with false accusations, by attributing motives to them they don’t hold, and so on?
Last but not least, I am probably actually far more open minded and tolerant about a lot of topics than whatever cranky person or rude yea-hoo is screaming at me about these things on Twitter.
I may disagree with you on X, Y, and Z, but if I saw you on fire, I would call the fire department on your behalf to save your life, regardless of your national origin, skin color, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or religious beliefs.
But would you do the same for me?
Because my sad, scary conclusion or hunch, the feeling I get, is that most people who scream at me on Twitter or blogs would not only NOT call 9-1-1 on my behalf if I were on fire, but they would walk across the street to pour gasoline on me.
Related Posts:
(Link): Liberal Identity Politics, Transgenderism, & Disregarding the Safety of Hetero Cisgender Women
(Link): Hypocrisy of Left Wingers and Atheists and the #NotAll Hash Tag or “Not All” Rhetoric
(Link): The Anti Christian Bias of Ignorant and Hypocritical Kelsie the Transgender Supporter
(Link): Christian Preacher Admits He Won’t Preach About Sexuality For Fear It May Offend Sexual Sinners
(Link): Hypocrisy From The ‘No Slut Shaming’ Crowd by C. Nance
(Link): The Christian and Non Christian Phenomenon of Virgin Shaming and Celibate Shaming
(Link): An Example of Mocking Adult Virginity Via Twitter (Virginity Used As Insult)
(Link): No, Christians and Churches Do Not Idolize Virginity and Sexual Purity (they attack both concepts)
Tweet It
Report: U.S. Government Erroneously Granted Citizenship to 858 ImmigrantsWith Deportation Orders:
(Link): USA Today
(Link): The Blaze
(Link): The Washington Times
(Link): Newsbusters
(Link): Immigration Threat- 10x in Past 2 Yrs Terrorists Slipped Through Immigration Process into US
Related:
(Link): Leaked German report reveals 200,000 refugee crimes
I seem to be one of the few people who understood the point of Trump Jr’s Skittles Tweet :
(Link): Not a Trump supporter here, but goodness, the Skittles comment was obviously a Metaphor
Christian Pundit 