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