Creating a more Tolerant Society

my generation’s passion for social

rights activism

is only becoming stronger when an issue

upsets us or resonates with us we hate

it

we hate climate change we hate racism

sexism or homophobia and while i’m not

trying to push a certain viewpoint

i think that many of us can agree that

these are justified things to hate

but this mindset unfortunately is not

just reserved for social rights issues

we have begun to apply it to people

and ironically as a result a generation

that is probably by far

one of history’s most tolerant of all

groups of people

has become a generation that is

incredibly

intolerant of other individuals

like to think of this as the mindset of

a two-year-old

think about what happens when you step

on a two-year-old’s toe

probably a lot of screaming and crying

and

sure their toe probably hurt when you

stepped on it

but they don’t know where you’re coming

from maybe

you didn’t see their toe and stepped on

it accidentally

maybe you stepped on the toe to avoid

stepping on something else

or to avoid hurting yourself or maybe

with bad intentions you went

and you stepped on their toe however

after that

realized you were in the wrong and tried

to make amends

surely in any of these cases you should

be forgiven

well not according to my generation

we cannot comprehend the fact that

people make mistakes

we cannot believe that something that

might feel hurtful to us

is actually the right thing to do

most worryingly we cannot forgive people

for their mistakes

not only after they have just apologized

but even after they have shown that they

can do better

we have the idea that people can never

change

so as a result we never change our

beliefs

but who are we to become the ultimate

deciding factor

of who is a good person and who is a bad

person

who are we as generations to preach

tolerance and inclusivity while not

being able to tolerate the fact

that people make mistakes people stuff

up

who are we to decide that our idea of

what is morally the right or wrong thing

to do

is the correct one and who are we

to say that people cannot change and

cannot redeem themselves

as much as we are the ones who hate

being told that making one mistake

has the potential to jeopardize our

future we are the ones who allow for

this to happen

take jenna marbles who as a youtuber in

2012

and 2013 unintentionally produce racist

and misogynistic content seven years

later in 2020

people began to dig up these videos from

her past

which ultimately resulted in her ending

her career on youtube

even after apologizing and taking these

videos

down obviously her behavior was not okay

by any means but her apology and attempt

to do better by taking these videos down

should allow for people not to

necessarily forgive her

for her mistakes but to realize her true

intentions

obviously we must not commend in fact we

must speak

out when somebody steps up but when

somebody steps up

intentionally or unintentionally and

attempts to do better

it is no longer our place to speak out

but what is the problem with this it’s

not like

other forms of intolerance which

occurred to effect as the

individual is unable to control this is

seemingly minor we aren’t breeding

hatred of groups of people but rather

individuals themselves our future

doesn’t depend on this

yes sure but surely in an attempt to

lessen

all hatred breeding this other form of

hatred is simply replacing

what we are trying to lessen

so how do we do better how do we undo

the lack of tolerance we have built

around others within our futures

rather than leaving it to the future of

the next generation

to try to do better while being told

that people can never change

the first step is reflection we learn

the history

of previous generations as a reminder of

what to do

and what to do better however we hardly

ever study our own histories

as a reminder of how we can do better

within our own lives

think about the last time you

immediately deemed someone a bad person

now think about what they did okay

in some cases they probably did a bad

thing

giving you the right to dislike them but

what about

after that was any future kindness they

showed you

overshadowed by your justified hatred

for them

what about you at the times digital

hatred of an

action that someone did allow for you to

generate your hatred

of an individual even after they did

something that might have been necessary

despite it hurting you

the second step is to make amends in

places you can

and in those you can’t acknowledge this

but still

attempt to move forward apologies do not

guarantee forgiveness

admitting your mistake does not mean you

have improved

but it does mean you are willing to make

an effort

realizing that in some situations you

cannot apologize

as it may be pointless or meaningless to

do so

is important however it does not mean

that you must not move forward

from your past so

now you’ve acknowledged your mistake

both

to yourself and potentially others

so you’d think that the hard part was

over

but it does get even harder because now

instead of reflecting on your past you

must reflect on your presence

we must develop a hyper awareness of our

ability to immediately deem people good

or bad when in some cases we may have

been the bad ones

we have to allow for others to change if

we want others to allow for us to change

the true test of character is not how we

react to the actions of others

but rather how that reaction affects our

opinion of that person

whether we can acknowledge the changes

and positive improvements of people

as we can with our rapidly changing

world

we cannot expect for our world to remain

the same

from our parts to our present or our

present to our future

so we cannot expect for people to do

this either

so let’s evolve from our past by

realizing that others

can evolve from this