Soapbox Time

I try to stay off my soapbox.  Sometimes, though, people just insist on shoving me until there's nowhere left to stand.  Today is one of those days.

I don't care what you believe in as long as it doesn't hurt other people.  Every person is entitled to his or her own opinion about things.  We are all (hopefully) thinking beings who take in information and make the best deductions about the world that we can based on those experiences.

What you don't have the right to do is two-fold.  First, you don't have the right to shove your beliefs down the throat of any other person.  Talk passionately about it?  Yes.  Debate over it civilly?  Absolutely.  Go further than that?  No.  Beliefs come from inside a person.  You just can't sway people to your way of thinking by force.  Second, you don't have the right to be hateful to someone who does not agree with you.  Just because somebody hasn't had the same experiences and has managed to come to a different opinion doesn't mean that you get to adopt an attitude of superiority, disdain, or condescension.

What happened to the very civilized idea of people being able to discourse even in disagreement?  When did disagreeing with someone turn them into some kind of mortal enemy?  I cannot understand how talking to someone else who holds a different opinion (again, as long as it's not hurting anybody else) is a cause for somebody to spring into violence, verbal or physical.  Are our beliefs so weak and malleable that we have to fear exposure to all others?  Shouldn't we instead welcome the chance to see another viewpoint, weigh it for its worth, and then made up our minds again when we're done?

I'm tired of every single moment I encounter the news being a stage for people being hateful to each other.  I'm tired of nobody being able to be kind.  I'm tired of the word "tolerant" being twisted to mean "anybody who agrees with MY IDEAS only" and flung around like a weapon.

Okay.  I think I've said everything I need to say.  I'm putting the soapbox up for the evening.  You can, of course, take this with a grain of salt, use it or ignore it as you choose.