Comment by steve19 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by steve19 | Hacker News Reader

tolerance is a two way street. would it be OK for conservative muslims to protest a gay CEO? no. in a democracy and in a world with many differing points of view at some point you just have to tolerate each others beliefs, regardless of how much you oppose them, and just get along.

edit: and now my words are being twisted. I never said being gay was a belief. what one person thinks of a proposed law is a belief.

edit edit: tolerance is not "I am OK with the gays but will never freely associate with one of them" nor is "I am tolerant of his views on gay marriage but I hate him and will never have anything to do with him".

tolerance is" I hate what you think/belive/lifestyle/god/wear but I won't hold it against you". my sister frequently nurses racists who are very rude to her. she tolerates then as gives them as good care as she gives anyone else. that is tolerance.

welcome to democracy. people have different opinion. they have different religious beliefs and different upbringing. just get along people.

Nobody's saying Eich can't donate to whatever causes he wants. But free speech has consequences, and one of them is people not associating with you when you do shitty things. He did a shitty thing and Mozilla is endorsing his shitty thing with its own actions and so people don't really want to get chummy with them.

That's not intolerance, that's freedom of association.

But I think you already knew that.

EDIT:

> tolerance is" I hate what you think/belive/lifestyle/god/wear but I won't hold it against you".

This is the nonsensical redefinition of "tolerance" that I notice is increasingly preached by those who realize their regressive opinions are increasingly considered unacceptable by a growing majority. It does not reflect the actual definition. It is dishonest.

Tolerance is respecting your right to have your regressive, hateful opinions. And I would never suggest that Eich does not have the right to have them. Even to donate money to those causes. But that also means I have the right to avoid using products that benefit him because I do not want to give patronage to people who would do as he does. You don't get a get-out-of-jail-free card about being reprehensible just because you really firmly believe something.

He spent his own money to try to make me a second class citizen. Am I supposed to "tolerate" it when someone has actively tried to take away my rights?

>> would it be OK for conservative muslims to protest a gay CEO? no.

False equivalence.

A gay CEO would not (necessarily) be actively trying to take conservative muslims' rights away.

Sure, I'll tolerate his views, he can believe whatever he want. I honestly don't care... except for the fact that he took the first shot by donating money to actively screw people like me over.

Being gay isn't a belief.

If it's not a choice or a belief, is it genetic?

> is it genetic?

Like much in the field, this is something of an open question. You can fill literal libraries with material on this subject and still not get a clear cut, concise answer to this.

However if you honestly believe it is a choice, then I have to ask you when you decided what your sexuality would be. Because chosing your sexuality is an experiance I cannot relate to.

In my personal experience as a gay man it's not a choice. It may or not be genetic but it's definitely innate.

If people don't choose their sex partners, why is rape a crime?

It's likely a mixture of genetics, hormones, and social factors. What's interesting to me is that homosexuality can be found in hundreds/thousands of animal species from high-order mammals to cephalopods. Whether or not being gay is a choice or is genetic or whatever else, it's clearly natural.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_displaying_homo...

Why does it matter?

It would be OK for Muslims to protest someone who wants to take away their rights. That would be a fair analogy.

It is definitely OK for them to protest. It is definitely OK for people who believe in a Flat Earth to protest NSF. No problem there.

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