Back in the early 90’s I was working as an engineer for a telecom equipment manufacturer. One day, I came to work and found that I had a new boss. The new guy was hired to fill a position I didn’t even know existed. These days HR would frown upon that sort of thing but back then it happened all the time.
The problem was that I didn’t get along with the new guy. Partly because of how he became my boss but mostly because he was an asshole.
After a couple of weeks, I got called into the office of my new boss’s boss. Who, up until a couple weeks prior, had been my boss. So, we knew each other pretty well. He told me that I had to respect the person he had picked to run the department. I explained to him that he couldn’t tell me who I had to respect, because respect must be earned. But, he could make me treat his new guy with respect.
I don’t think he understood the concept. I got a dismissive wave and a, “fine, make sure you treat him with respect then.”
So, essentially, what I agreed on with my old boss was that I had to tolerate my new boss. I didn’t have to actually respect him, nor did I have to like him. I just had to pretend that I did.
Cool. I can do that. It turned out that I couldn’t.
Well, I could. But not for any sustained length of time. As long as I could limit my interactions with my asshole boss, I was fine. But once I reached a certain point, my ability to tolerate his assholeness dropped to zero. In other words, I could tolerate him, but I couldn’t build up a tolerance to him.
I’m north of 60 years old and in my entire life, I’ve known exactly one person who identifies as “transexual”. He’s 6-foot-three with a voice deeper than mine. I say he “identifies” as a transexual because he’s pushing 70 and has been a pre-op tranny for longer than I’ve known him. So, as I see it, he’s not a transexual. He’s just a really committed transvestite.
Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that he actually is a transexual. That’s one person. Out of everyone I’ve ever known. In more than six decades.
But, if I were to believe what I see in the media, I’d think that men who think they’re women are getting close to being the majority. It seems like every TV show and movie has at least one transexual character. If that accurately represents the distribution of people with that particular type of mental illness, then a good percentage of the people on this planet would also be people who feel it necessary to tell me what their personal pronouns are. As if I give a shit.
For decades, the Left has been preaching…wait, that’s not right…the Left has been whining that everyone should have tolerance. They don’t want us to just tolerate things. They want us to build up a tolerance. And there’s a distinct difference between those two things.
The definition of the word “tolerate” is, “to accept or endure someone or something unpleasant or disliked with forbearance.” Which is a fancy way of saying that you might not like something, but you’ll pretend that you do, and keep your mouth shut.
It’s like riding in an elevator with a woman wearing an overpowering perfume. It’s not particularly pleasant, but I know it will be over soon. Even in the tallest of buildings, it probably won’t last for more than five minutes.
I can tolerate anything for five minutes.
But tolerance…that’s different. Tolerance is the ability to tolerate something over time. Sure, you may be able to tolerate back pain for a short while. But will you really develop a tolerance for it? That’s unlikely.
Before I continue, let me explain something. I have nothing against people with a mental illness. I feel sorry for them, but my liking or disliking someone has little to do with whether or not they have a mental defect. No, whether or not I like or dislike someone is primarily based on whether or not they’re an asshole.
And, as I mentioned before, I have a real problem tolerating assholes.
Men who think they’re women and women who think they’re men may truly believe in their delusion. But I shouldn’t be expected to participate in it. If they want to live in a fantasy world where men can have babies…well…good for them. But when they try to force me to live in their world? That dog won’t hunt.
I could potentially tolerate a dude wearing a dress and lipstick…for a little while. But then I’d need to step back and recharge my ability to keep my mouth shut and pretend I agree with him.
That’s hard to do when we’re constantly barraged with non-stop examples of silliness like men who have their dangly bits cut off, continue to date women, and then want to be called a lesbian. There is no escaping this insanity. It’s everywhere we look. There’s no chance for me to recharge my ability to tolerate. Which I need to do because I have no tolerance for that shit.
When they expect me to remember their personal pronouns or try to force me to believe that their abnormality is actually normal…well…that moves them solidly into the asshole category. And when that happens, I find myself with no more fucks left to give.
So, at least for a limited time, I can tolerate them. I can treat them with respect and keep my mouth shut. But I’m not going to build up a tolerance to them and their delusions. And I’m certainly not going to admire their courage for “being their authentic self”. Because doing so would only be encouraging their behavior. Which would be a ridiculous thing to do.
I’d like to make a suggestion. Instead of the kumbaya, inclusiveness and diversity definition of tolerance, I propose we focus on a different definition.
Tolerance is also defined as “an allowable amount of variation”. Yeah, let’s use that one. Tolerance is the maximum difference of something that still allows it to fit. In other words, once something deviates far enough from the optimal configuration, it’s no longer considered acceptable. It’s considered defective.
So, when the Liberal Left tells us to have more tolerance for dudes who think they’re women, what they’re really expecting us to do is to increase the acceptable amount of variation before someone is considered mentally ill.
And because they’re never happy with the status quo, it will lead to a never-ending loop where the acceptable variation will continue to increase, and we’ll be expected to tolerate and encourage even more deviant behavior.
And that, I can’t tolerate.
