At one time, tolerance seems to have been defined as the ability to put up with things that you might disagree with, at the one end, and of being agreeable to anything at the other. Currently, there is a push to define it as supporting, embracing, and applauding whatever it is that you are asked to be tolerant of. I won't get into the political hypocrisies that have made use of the word. When I ask for tolerance in the forum, I am speaking of that which moves in every direction. You don't have to agree with someone in order to allow that they have a right to hold a differing opinion and to express it. You don't have to hold your tongue either, as your opinion has just as much of a right to exist as the one you may disagree with. If you disagree with someone, and it's on topic, feel free to voice that. But don't chase them all over the forum trying to beat them into submission. We're not all going to be interested in the same things, and we're not necessarily going to agree about some of the things that we're interested in. If a topic offends you, but it's not overly offensive to most people, don't participate in it. If you feel the need to say that it offends you, go ahead, but then leave it at that. Not everyone is at the same level when it comes to tolerance and, for each of us, there may be some things that we have no interest in tolerating. If I think it's overly offensive, I'll remove it but my level of tolerance is pretty high, at least as far as the forum goes, because if I put too many limits on what we can discuss here, or which opinions are allowed, it won't be long before we're not talking about anything. Not everyone is comfortable with sex, violence, and bad language in movies. I don't see why that should be a problem for anyone. As far as the forum goes, I will tolerate no sex or violence here, and I'd like to keep the bad language at a very low level. Sometimes it's necessary to say what you're talking about if you're going to talk about it, so if it's necessary to quote an offensive word, go ahead. It shouldn't usually be necessary, though. When I was a child, we weren't even supposed to say "darn" and, although they are mostly dead now, when I was speaking to any of my uncles or aunts, even as an adult, I was careful about what I said, because we didn't have any conversations that absolutely required even a substitution for a cuss word. Why offend someone when it's not necessary for conversation? Tattoos? I hate tattoos, but I have tattoos. That's quite a dilemma. Some people are uncomfortable with interracial marriages. They are going to feel that way whether they are allowed to express it or not and unless they're in a position to prevent someone from being married, it's just an opinion. No one dies from it. I believe that opinions are more likely to be changed through conversation than by shaming or shunning, so I tend to think that conversation is good. That too, needs to go both ways, however. If you believe that it's wrong for someone of one race to marry someone of another, and you chase someone around the forum for believing otherwise, or for being married to someone of another race, that is unacceptable. But if there's a topic about race or racial attitudes, and you want to express your opinion on the subject, no one dies from it. Keep in mind, however, that, voiced or not, people will form opinions about you based on what you reveal about yourself because that's pretty much all we have to go by here. Try not to be overly offensive. Try not to be too easily offended. Play well with others.
@Ken Anderson, I really enjoy an academic argument that is based on logic, thought and facts. I do hate name-calling, prejudice, and yelling trying to drown out the opinions of others.
Yes, all of us have thoughts, likes and dislikes about different things. Some were raised differently than others and have lived, and live, differently than others.
In the case of having a hard felt opinion concerning another person and / or their stance on a given subject: it might be noted that the ladies have patented and practiced a technique on men for centuries which which we men understand and cringe with a conderable amount of chagrin. When a lady vehemently disagrees with a man, being silent serves her purpose much better than a club. Ergo, no response is as powerful and sometimes even more so depending on the topic at hand. Perhaps there is a lesson everyone can learn from said patent.
Hay guys it is my turn in the barrel as I have probably ruffled a few feathers. If a person leaves feeling out of any discussion they are better off because they get the information without getting upset. To get offended means you use feeling to make a decisions and not information. I was luck to learn NLP and that help me separate feelings from information great help.