Tolerance has to run both ways

[msmemory_archive]

I have a friend on Facebook who is an ardent Republican, and often posts links to video and editorials critical of President Obama. I must take a deep breath whenever I see them: I don't want to un-friend her, and if I were posting lots of links in support of the President I wouldn't want her to un-friend me on account of them. If I demand tolerance and openmindedness, I mustn't be a hypocrite. But it's haaaaaarrrrdd!

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is the difficult side of tolerance. Sympathies.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

You can filter them out of your viewing feed if you don't want to unfriend them completely. But I see how that would miss the point.

[handymonkey]

I have the same problem for the same reason. I can't filter my friend, though, because then I won't be able to read the not-vitriol that I *want* to read.

[tpau]

it's a bitch isn't it?

[freya46.livejournal.com]

I had that problem and finally had to remove them. But I didn't know them personally so it wasn't a hassle.

It seems to me, though, that the tolerance and consideration should work both ways. If she's posting these on YOUR facebook, or linking them to you, ask her to stop with the reason why. Or, put a filter on them. Like LJ, it's your page.

(((((HUGS)))

[crosslet.livejournal.com]

As a moderate with a number of ultra liberal friends, I feel your pain. I applaud youf desire to be fair. I read Foxnews and CNN and NPR. I think its good to hear all sides of an argument. I assume the truth is somewhere in between. Personally I think the left and right are too dogmatic. I like Mr. Obama. I just don't get the rock star popularity.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder if it a common friend.

One of my close relatives commented on it to.

Was today's about golf?

And it is hard, and I agree with the poster who talks about tolerance.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Yes, today's was about golf, and I believe this is a friend you, Rowen, and I have in common.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I think you position is good, provided that the arguments this person is using are reasonable. We can have different views, and there's certainly room for civil disagreement, particularly when it's advanced with calm, rational argument. I know I think Obama has been a disappointment on a number of levels. That said, I think there's a lot of things he's done right, or at least so much better than his predecessor that they appear right by comparison.

What gets me about so much of the current anti-Obama stuff is that it's crazy ramblings being screamed loudly by people who clearly don't know what the words they're using mean. Much of it is outright lies that have been debunked before, but keep coming back. The argument that Obama is a socialist-communist-fascist-Nazi born in Kenya isn't based in a reality that I can see enough referents to to do anything but reject it out of hand as crazy talk. As Barney Frank said to one protester, it's like arguing with a dining room table.

While tolerance for sane people of different opinions is good, I don't think it's unreasonable to distance yourself from crazy people.

[farmhouse-ghost.livejournal.com]

I have the same issue, but from the opposite perspective.

It is very hard indeed :)