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Comment by ekianjo | Hacker News Reader

sorry but how does that work to be for tolerance and anti discrimination in the first place ? anti discrimination means you Do NOT tolerate people who discriminate, so you cant be tolerant at the same time. I always see this kind of contradictions in principles.

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Totally agree. I'm fed up of the argument that goes "if you preach tolerance, you must be tolerant of intolerance", for my own understanding of tolerance. Yes, you shouldn't commit a violent act against someone because they are intolerant. No, you shouldn't have to accept their intolerance unreservedly.

I also have an issue with the part of the statement that reads along the lines of "we are against discrimination based on someone's race, gender ... or personal beliefs". Sorry, that's ridiculous. If someone believes Jews are parasites, I'm discriminating against them. If someone thinks women are inherently inferior to men, I'm discriminating against them. If I'm not allowed to react differently to someone because of what they believe in, go ahead and unplug me now because i cease to be a thinking human being.

Who decides what is intolerant? Free speech becomes more limited over time as the definition changes to anything which hurts someones feelings for example. Or, in this case, ascribes to BDSM and fantasy lifestyle.

You are the thought police.

> You are the thought police.

Not at all. Anyone is totally free to believe whatever they like, I'm not suggesting making certain beliefs illegal. What I'm saying is that, if i run an open-source project, i should be free to work with whoever i want, based on their beliefs. Not based on the person they were when they born, but the person they have chosen to be. If that person happens to be a white-supremacist or advocates euthenising the disabled or promotes paedophilia, i will probably choose to not work with them, and i think i should have that right.

So anyone is free to believe whatever they like but if they'd like to join your organization they better shut up about it if they don't think the way you do? In effect you are policing thought.

So then how do you deal with people with such beliefs in your society? Do you shun them, throw slurs at them? What happens when one moves in to be your next-door neighbor? Do you try moving to places without them?

Intolerance of beliefs is incompatible with society, and society has shown no signs of changing. How would your solution address that? Indoctrination? Building an ideological "wall"? Killing those who do not meet your ideology, or wait and hope it 'dies out'?

What happens when they elect someone with such beliefs to lead you?

> So then how do you deal with people with such beliefs in your society? Do you shun them, throw slurs at them? What happens when one moves in to be your next-door neighbor? Do you try moving to places without them?

As long as they do not impede on my or anyone else Freedom's, it's fine for them to have their own beliefs about the world or whatever. Why should we ALL have the same beliefs anyway?

> Intolerance of beliefs is incompatible with society, and society has shown no signs of changing.

Sorry but society as a whole has NEVER collapsed no matter how many disharmonies there are or were amongst us - even civil wars do not bring down entire societies. There's a lot more harm to be done by putting limits on how people should think, and this kind of line of thought is actually what leads to conflict more often than not.

> What happens when they elect someone with such beliefs to lead you?

So what? Leaders who do not represent folks have been elected for centuries already, it's hardly something new. You know, live with it.

> So then how do you deal with people with such beliefs in your society

Challenge those beliefs. I believe i shouldn't be forced to tolerate them, though.

The code of conduct just applies to behavior inside the community. It has nothing to do with stuff happening outside of it.

The community would not tolerate discriminating behavior against members of the community or while doing work for the community. But what you do in your private life is non of it's business.

I hope you understand what I mean.

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