Tolerance

OK, so I was watching "Wife Swap" last night (hey, so at least I admit it). As usual, it was about two wildly different women switching places for a couple weeks. Last night, it was a freaky-deaky heavily-tattooed athiest white woman switching places with a deeply religious black woman. As usual, the point was that we should all be respectful of each other's beliefs.

Really?

Do I have to respect the beliefs of a terrorist who believes that it is morally right for him to kill people? If Hitler was around today, would I have to respect his Aryan supremacy beliefs? Aren't there some beliefs that do not deserve respect? And can I decide which beliefs I will respect and which I will not, or does someone else get to do that? And if I don't believe in someone else's belief, is it ok for me to say so, as loudly as I want, or not?

On another blog I was reading recently, there was a big to-do. Someone had posted a video to YouTube of an overweight woman dancing the samba. A friend of the overweight woman posted the video on her website, saying something along the lines of, "Look how well my friend can dance!" The very first commenter said something along the lines of, "another beached whale video", and the shit hit the fan, with everyone defending the fat woman and decrying the commenter.

OK. First, if you post a video to YouTube it is there for everyone in the world to see. And then if your friend puts the video on her site and has a section for comments, anyone can comment, unless the comments are restricted to registered users, or the site is limited to access by friends only, neither of which, I believe, is the case in this situation.

I am not saying that this guy should have made this comment. All I am saying is that when you post stuff that anyone can look at, shouldn't you be ready for the negative as well as the positive? If you don't want everyone to look at it, shouldn't you restrict access?

And I will say again that all comments, positive and negative, are welcome on this site.