A very silly taunt I get a lot from the peanut gallery is basically "You think you're right and I'm wrong and that makes you intolerant." Sheesh. A) Everybody thinks they're right, that's what it means to think something. It's tautological. B) I could say exactly the same thing to you.
But let's try to unpack disagreeing with somebody with disrespecting them. Here's what I think.
1. There is a certain measure of respect and consideration that is due to every human. It gets complicated -- we can argue about exactly what that consists of and how to honor it in the case of people who transgress boundaries. An implication for me is that yes, I should try to understand why people sometimes have beliefs that I am quite sure are wrong. But it doesn't mean that I can't be certain of my own beliefs and consider others to be in error.
2. Again, and I feel like a broken record, there are different kinds of beliefs and they have different kinds of wrongness. If you believe that the earth is flat, that it is 10,000 years old, and that climate change is a hoax, you are wrong in one kind of way. If you believe that people of northern European descent are the master race and that all others should be subservient you are wrong in a different kind of way. There might be some incorrect factual beliefs associated with it, but it is not on the whole a factual belief, it is a moral belief, or really an entire system for organizing your understanding of reality.
3. While all people are due that basic guarantee of respect and consideration, the amount of tolerance I have for beliefs depends on many factors. There are in fact some beliefs that I consider deplorable, meaning that they are contrary to my moral values. That means that people who express them are ipso facto committing an immoral act. It follows that I will not allow them to be expressed here, because that would make me guilty of collaboration; and it follows that the people who hold them, I hold in low regard.
4. There are some factually wrong beliefs that are also dangerous and damaging to humanity, for example climate change denial or QAnon. The reality of anthropogenic climate change and the unreality of QAnon are not matters for debate. They are facts, with the same status as the sun rising in the east. Some people promote false beliefs for morally repugnant reasons, i.e. the Koch brothers profit from the fossil fuel industry and some people sell QAnon merchandise. Those people are acting deplorably. Other people, however, are mere dupes. I do not condemn them morally, but I do wish we could create an information ecosystem in which such false beliefs could not so readily proliferate.
5. If you are just plain wrong about something, I will tell you so. Respecting you as a person does not mean I have to overlook your errors.
2 comments:
I thought it was ludicrous--and tragic--when Pence said to Harris in the debate, "... you're entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts."
Pathetic. Quoting an actual person (Daniel Patrick Moynihan), when he--Pence--is not so much an outlier, as an out-and-out liar.
Scum, he is. This is what they do, the Republicans in the federal government: they blatantly, with no trace of irony, accuse others of doing EXACTLY what they do. "Judicial activism!" "Fiscal irresponsibility!"
These people have GOT to be called out on their lies. And Shitler and his clan and supporters need to be prosecuted. Without some sort of frame of reference for reality, we're as untethered as a space crew floating in neutral gravity. The liars must begin to pay for their lies.
Perhaps we need to update Mart Twain's categories of untruthful people to:
Liars, damn liars, and Republicans
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