Tolerance and Acceptance. It's something that we all long to have from our peers, yet simultaneously try to belittle others for their beliefs. It's incredible that it doesn't matter what we seem to debate, we will always find a way to make it an argument for one side or the other. Be it abortion, gay rights, trans rights, or any of the other hot items up for debate leading up over the past few years, we always know people that are extremely one-sided and will never listen to the other side without some sort of belittlement. Everyone has an opinion that they wish to share, and with the ease of social media these days, it's become even easier to know how your crazy uncle feels about virtually anything. He only wants to hear his opinion in a different voice repeated back to him.
The thing that I don't understand fully is why are we like that as a society right now? Is it because we are told that we have to be tolerant of virtually everything that comes up now? Or is it because people are afraid of changing from things that we've known? It seems like every week there is something new that people are doing and want to be accepted for, and they should be accepted for being them, but I think that part of it is that before the information wasn't put in our face so much because the world has never been this connected. In the same breath, though, people are able to find acceptance from people all over the world when they can't find it close in their lives. We can meet and talk to people across the ocean instantaneously and get acceptance if need be. You can find people that share your same opinions and experiences because of this.
People resist many things because they are so scared of things being different or outside the realm of things that they understand, so they just meet it with anger and hatred. This isn't always the case, but it seems like a majority of people that disagree with you end up doing in some sort of angry tone, even if you're trying to find the most civil ways of expressing your own opinions. A large of these hot ticket items seem to be based in a realm of religion vs non-religious views, especially with things like abortion and gay rights. A lot of these people want you to accept their own values while degrading your values when in all actuality we should all be allowed to believe what it is that we want to. We all find religions that we relate to or want to be included in, as well as the ability to be non-religious. Everyone walks different paces in life in different areas. This allows many different views even in a seemingly same topic.
When we get down to it, we find that tolerance isn't just black and white. It takes quite a bit of effort to truly accept someone as they are with no exceptions.
