• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

How tolerant can we be of those who are intolerant of us?

Last week, I wrote a satire (“A modest proposal for an immodest proposition,” Oct. 10) that received a bit of attention, especially from those who believed my racist proposition, based on Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” to be an honest one.

The fallout was of the non-nuclear variety, but it has given me a lot to think about how we treat those who are intolerant of us.

I received dozens of e-mails from people wishing I would “die a horrible death” and one that continually referred to me as a “Jew faggot.”

I still don’t know how the latter man came to know that I was Jewish (perhaps he spotted my horns) or that I’m gay (we might have dated, but between the acid and Reaganomics, the ’80s are still a little hazy).

One person went to the trouble of signing up for the e-mail address jed_levine_aka_racist@yahoo.com just to harass me, which was surprising because I thought that one was taken already. In total I received 10 e-mails threatening physical violence – one went so far as to find my address and phone number online to illustrate how he might hunt me down.

“I’m not a violent person,” he added, reassuringly.

I was even the subject of a Facebook group appropriately titled “A Modest Proposition to Beat Jed Levine’s Racist Ass.”

It was a long week.

Through it all I couldn’t help but wonder: Even if I were the racist these people believed me to be, should I deserve this kind of treatment?

When does it become acceptable for someone who preaches tolerance to be intolerant of others?

In Germany it is illegal to say that the Holocaust never happened, and speaking negatively about the King in Thailand can lead to seven years’ imprisonment.

The French parliament passed a law last week making it illegal to deny that the Armenian genocide happened, but the French will jump at any chance to smack Turkey with a baguette.

The U.S. has a strong tradition of tolerating people with the most intolerant of views, and our free speech laws are some of the most liberal in the world.

Despite their wild unpopularity, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan can hold marches and rallies so long as they do not instigate violence. I’ve always thought this to be a sign that something in our democracy is working right.

To me, freedom of speech can be measured by how much a society can tolerate the most unpopular opinions within it.

But while the law may protect such intolerant views, individuals’ actions can always undermine that principle.

Some of the e-mails I received last week preached tolerance and understanding of other peoples at first, but later devolved into tirades calling me everything from a “redneck asshole” to an “ignorant racist.”

I call it the “Shut the hell up and be tolerant already” syndrome.

Telling someone to be more tolerant while being intolerant of him – perhaps these people understand irony after all.

While it’s easy to say that we should be tolerant of other people’s views, even if they are intolerant of us, in practice our campus does not live up to this standard.

Each year the melting pot that is Bruin Walk is graced with the likes of the “offensive bearded Christian preacher” and the “guy with the hateful signs that say everyone is going to hell.”

Both men make it a point to be severely hateful and have most likely managed to offend nearly everyone on campus.

Each day they come to spread their messages and hundreds of students gather, not to listen or engage so much as to provoke, laugh and ridicule.

These men come to our campus knowing that they will be berated and derided; it’s a sort of sadism not often seen outside the likes of S&M dungeons.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I think both men have terribly misguided opinions and they certainly seek the attention.

But if our collective treatment of these men is a test of our tolerance, consider it failed worse than a world arts and cultures student in an organic chemistry class.

So I have a challenge for the students of UCLA, born from my experience at the bottom of the barrel of the tolerance shotgun: Let’s tolerate them.

The day one of these men can deliver their highly controversial and offensive opinions in the middle of UCLA without a single passing student yelling epithets and those stopping only to engage them in dialogue, will be a great day for free speech at UCLA.

Anything less than tolerance for intolerance would be hypocritical.

And if there’s anything I hate more than hypocrites, it’s fat, gay, bearded Jewish guys.

Does intolerance of intolerance equal tolerance? E-mail Jed at jlevine@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.