Hello. Long time no see!

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to say this and this seems like the best place to say it. There have been a number of … shall we say, confrontations, between persons of different political leanings that have garnered a lot of public attention. Just one type of these confrontations is one side telling the other side that they’re behaving in less than admirable ways, and that side replying with, “So much for your vaunted tolerance!”

Sigh. The folks saying this are stupid, ignorant, or malicious. Seriously. Because they seem to think that tolerance is an absolute quality, something handed out to everyone like, I don’t know, Halloween candy. Or something.

But what it isn’t is absolute. It’s like respect. You earn it. You deserve it. And you do that earning and deserving by giving it. If you cannot give it, you don’t get to complain about not getting it.

I get it. Really, I do. I figured out a long time ago that over 90% of the stupid people do is due to they don’t know better, or they misunderstood and need more or better information, or they’re distracted and they just didn’t step up this one time. Most people, most of the time, are more than willing to be kind and good and all things warm and fuzzy. So I tend to give such folks the benefit of a doubt. But malice … we, as human beings, are hardwired to recognize malice. We generally react very, very badly when we encounter it.

If your stupidity, your ignorance, or your distraction resemble malice, don’t be surprised if people don’t tolerate it. After all, wouldn’t you fail to tolerate it from them?

And if it is malice?

Bye, Felicia.