I would love to say that in 2016 we have finally become accepting of the fact that people share different opinions and have finally understood that maybe it is better to agree to disagree. but sadly, that is not the case.
Instead, we have become even more annoyingly outspoken about how those who surround us are "intolerable", "problematic" and "wrong". We have become too easily offended by those who surround us merely because they happen to not think exactly the way we do.
Don't believe me? Try to have a conversation with a vegan about food without having their beliefs shoved down your throat. Or attempt to have a civilized conversation about Christianity with these people:
Don't think the world is too easily offended? Tell that to the Lyft driver who almost got fired because self-righteous SJW member Annaliese Nielsen decided it would be "heroic" to attack her driver for having a hula doll in his car because he was not as she put it "from the continent of Hawaii".
And let's not forget this picture:
that got Ellen DeGeneres incredible amounts of hate for being "racist". Even though Usain Bolt himself retweeted the picture and said it was funny.
And the problem is not the fact that people are offended, people are 100% entitled to being offended. The problem is that we have become convinced that other people have to change in order for us to not be offended anymore.
No matter on which side of the conservative-liberal line one lands there will always be someone demanding more censorship of what we don't agree with and more representation of what we agree with. We need to learn to accept that we won't always agree with what is being said and shown but that doesn't necessarily mean its bad or wrong and it must be taken away.
Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist said "“The fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it.”
Am I saying "stop fighting for what you believe?" No, not at all. Keep advocating for your beliefs but learn to accept that you won't convince everybody. Learn to accept that people will think differently than you. Learn to accept that people will think you are wrong and will let you know when they do.
But most importantly learn to accept that sharing an opinion is a double invitation for others to share their opinion on your opinion and their opinion on the subject at hand.
In order to advance, in order to make others listen to what we believe in, we must learn to not be hypocrites. Because as of right now we are telling people "you have the right to your opinion" with the caveat that it is so "as long as you share mine."
