So let me get this straight: We’re supposed to believe that some of Chris Christie’s staffers closing a bridge for political payback is a national scandal worth of hours, nay, days, of attention from the media?
Really?
I’m not denying there’s a story there, and someone certainly needs to be held accountable, but if that was a national scandal of Watergate proportions, what then would you call an incident in which a U.S. embassy is attacked by terrorists and an ambassador killed, where the government does nothing to help said embassy, and then finally lies about who attacked it and why? No, nothing?
Okay, what if the president ordered the IRS to use its power to target political groups opposed to his administration? What if, when that was discovered, the Department of Justice appointed a political ally of the president and campaign donor to investigate said incident? Still nothing?
How about if the president effectively said he would ignore over two hundred years of legal procedure and rule by executive decree like a dictator? Crickets?
Mainstream media, and I mean this with all the respect due to you – which is none, by the way – you’re going to Hell.
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It seems the word “tolerance” has been popping up a lot lately, even more so than usual. Last week the New Statesman published (what is for them an uncharacteristically-sensible) piece by Cristina Odone about current intolerance towards Christians and Christian beliefs in our society. This of course got me thinking about the now-infamous Phil Robertson episode, and how many people decried his words as ‘intolerant’, seemingly oblivious to the absurdity of using such a word in an attempt to silence someone for voicing his opinion. It also got me thinking about the European Union’s new, chilling directive on “tolerance”.
While “terrorism” is the magic word governments now employ to strip us of our rights to privacy, it appears that “tolerance” has become the word that governments, and our fellow citizens for that matter, use to restrict our ability to speak freely and follow our consciences. I might be crazy, but I’m pretty sure tolerance means I accept the existence of something without trying to stop it. It does not mean I have to condone or support said thing. I can tolerate bad weather, and chefs who use too much tarragon, and people who think that the plural of word is “word’s”, but I don’t like any of those things, and in a free society I should be able to say as much.
But, as both the saga of Phil Robertson, and Odone’s article show, we’ve now reached a state of affairs in which it is practically impossible for Christians to voice their religious beliefs on certain subjects without facing a torrent of verbal abuse – if they’re even permitted a platform to discuss them in the first place. As far as liberals are concerned tolerance no longer means that they are entitled to their beliefs and I to mine. It now seems to mean that they are entitled to their beliefs and those beliefs are to be my beliefs too or else.
Just look at the state of things around us. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case that would ban free speech outside of abortion clinics, and our leaders condemn Russia for her “anti-Gay propaganda law” in a tone once reserved for scolding truly bad regimes for doing truly bad things.
Middle schools think it’s appropriate to discuss sex acts in depth with thirteen year olds, and many high schools – including the one I went to – observe LGBT Pride month. The fact that sexual activity discussed in a non-academic manner is relatively inappropriate for an academic institution filled with underage kids aside, my school, like many, has a ban on public displays of affection. In what world does it make sense for a school to discipline two teenage lovers for kissing each other whilst simultaneously dedicating a month in celebration of alternative sexual behaviour? A “tolerant” one, apparently.
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In case you haven’t already heard, the Obama Administration effectively wants schools to stop disciplining black and Hispanic kids. In many school districts black and Hispanic students are disciplined at a much higher rate than their white and Asian peers. A sensible person might conclude this is because black and Hispanic students commit more disciplinary infractions than their white and Asian peers, but the Justice Department thinks it is due to racism. There’s not really much I can write that hasn’t already been written (and likely written better) by the Editors at National Review, but I just wanted to bring this story to your attention so you can share in my despair at the farce of a country I live in.
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