Just a little bit of clarity on the issue of tolerance
Fred, over yonder at Slacktivist, makes the point on tolerance
About here, inevitably, someone will chime in with what they seem to think of as the trump card for the religious totalitarian perspective. Aha! they will say, so what you’re saying is you’re all for tolerance, except when it comes to people who are intolerant!
Well, yeah. And also, duh. Antonyms are incompatible. Opposites are opposed. That’s not a particularly noteworthy observation, so I’ve always been baffled as to why this bit of adolescent wordplay was regarded as meaningful.
Not directly on comics, but associated with a lot of the attitudes that come with the territory of trying actually improve the lot for a wider range of people than those currently benefiting from a given situation. Sometimes, one of the problematic issues of being the good guys is that we’re not allowed to go and silence those we are in disagreement with, even if those same people would have no qualms about shutting us up and shutting us down.
But somedays, tolerating the intolerable isn’t an option - particularly when it’s the reason you’re protesting, putting forth an alternate view or saying “Hey, I don’t want this”. By opposing whatever it is, from the cover of H4H to the Mary Jane statue to the first, last or next issue, you become an opponent to what was created that bugged the hell out of you. It’s how the language codes it, the system scores it, and reality works.
Telling me that if I want to be tolerant, I have to tolerate intolerance is like telling me that in order to diversify my interests, I should narrow them down. Broaden the diversity of my superhero team by reducing the membership to only white male heroes to prove that we’re so diverse, we can have a monoracial single gender team.
Yes, random abstracted thought is a by-product of me working late nights and tinkering with wiring on things yet to be released on the world. Speaking of which, anyone know where I can get a supply of vibranium? E-bay is proving recalcitrant.