Yeah, your post has convinced me. I think you’re right.
Brain Wreck, what exactly am I being intolerant of? Idiocy? Sure, I’ll cop to that. As for your rationalization of your comment, you were offering it as a reason why my husband wouldn’t want me sleeping in bed with a gay man… because (just in your experience, of course) they will hump ANYTHING, including whatever hapless women cross their paths. I think your definition of “gay” is broken, and thus your comment, useless.
You don’t have to weigh in on something you don’t care about. Who would bother? It’s just that, some people did care, apparently, but didn’t say anything. Which is also your prerogative, but then it’s hard to know what’s tolerance, what people just don’t want to dignify, etc.
First-person accounts of someone’s own sexual behavior when it doesn’t mesh with the image you want projected.
It’s not a personal account of his own sexual behavior, it’s the alleged behavior of his friends, ALL of them who he says are gay but who apparently are not actually gay, to discuss why gay men can’t be trusted to sleep in bed platonically with women. It wasn’t just “this is my experience,” it’s the THEREFORE: “this is why gay men can’t be trusted,” or “this is why your husband might be leery of the situation.” Do you see how, despite Brain Wreck’s claims that it’s just about his friends, it takes the next step into a characterization of gay people generally? A characterization I think is faulty based on a faulty definition of “gay.”
Then it’s hardly the basis for a generalization about the SDMB membership. Maybe some people saw the allegedly offensive material and responded, some saw it and didn’t bother to respond, some never opened that thread (or didn’t read it far enough before losing interest, never getting to the alleged offensive material) and some never saw the thread at all because they didn’t log on for a few days and the thread disappeared off its forum’s front page.
I don’t see any of this having a bearing on the SDMB’s tolerance level.
The problem is, he took the behavior of those individuals and stated that he would be uncomfortable for the situation to arise with any gay males, because of those individuals. If I said that I was uncomfortable going to my local supermarket because there were a number of latinos shopping there and my reasoning was that I have known some latinos that said they had robbed people, I would be castigated for it.
Please note, I am not saying that I think Brain Wreck is homophobic, but that sort of extrapolation does lend itself well to charges of intolerance.
Yeah, you’re probably right. It was pretty fresh in my mind, which is why I brought it up. Maybe it’s actually hijacking the thread to continue to discuss it, so I’ll drop it. Sorry about that.
Maybe because most people’s pets are better behaved than most people’s kids? 
I’m new here, but I have been lurking the board for quite a while. One of the reasons I have chosen to sign up is that I see the SDMB as a very tolerant discussion board - especially in comparison to the majority of forums out there. We have good moderation, the “Cite, please!”-rule, and the Pit, and all of those things help towards keeping the snarking/trolling to a minimum. I think it would be very difficult to find any social formation (online or IRL) where the subjects discussed on this board would be treated with the same amount of respect for others and tolerance that you find here. People disagree here too, of course, and some subjects are hard to rationalize - especially those in GD, I guess. Sure there are some intolerant people, but I usually enjoy the fact that most dopers seem to be able to qualify their opinions rationally.
In other words: I like it here, and find the dope to be way above most other boards in tolerance and acceptance of “alternative” life styles or opinions.
It kinda depends on the “alternative” in question. It does feel like a clubhouse for the Drama and AV clubs much of the time. Question the party line about, say, global warming, gay marriage or Condoleezza Rice, and you could be hounded off these boards. (“It’s caused by rich white Capitalists and their SUV’s,” “It’s a biological imperative and an absolute Right of Man,” “She drinks the blood of infants and has flying monkeys that do her evil bidding” are all safe, acceptable answers.)
I think the Dope attracts certain types of people. Generally speaking, those people are people I like conversing with. As for it being tolerant, I don’t see it. What I see as the trend is that if you post something that’s “popular”, the Dope is very tolerant of it and it will glean a lot of responses. If you don’t post something that’s “popular” at all, then the thread will sink like a stone and/or you’ll get a lot of contrary comments.
As we’ve mentioned before, there are hot button topics if you want to get support or incur wrath. I wish it weren’t so, but it seems to just be a simple fact of life. As a whole, we’re tolerant…within out self-imposed boundaries. I see a lot and learn a lot here, but there are some times in which the Dope can’t help me at all and I’ve got to go elsewhere to find the answers. I usually end up at message boards that espouse the counterpoint and reading those.
[Official Moderator Underoos on]I don’t care who said what to who, the personal insults in IMHO stop now. If someone offends you, take it to The BBQ Pit.[/Official Moderator Underoos On]
I think there is often an unfortunate tendency to valorise any minority who has experienced {or still experiences} discrimination and prejudice, to the extent that any derogatory comment about a member of that group as an individual is automatically viewed as a slam on the group as a whole: if someone criticises the behaviour of a homosexual, they are condemned as homophobic. Some homosexuals I know are absolute arseholes, some are lovely blokes, most, like the majority of the human race, fall somewhere in between. Placing homosexuals, or any other group of human beings on a pedestal, does no-one any favours: they’re people, capable of the same faults and virtues as the rest of us.
I don’t get it… how exactly?
Really? you see the defense of Global Warming reduced to blaming it on SUVs? After hundreds of posts by posters like **Jshore ** and to a lesser extent myself and dozens of others, you can dismiss us this glibly? See now I am offended by your attitude. Even **Cecil ** and **Una ** have offered rational support of Global Warming and how we can reduce our impact on it.
You show zero respect for the opposing views of others with the post you made.
Jim
And you show zero respect for his apparently opposing view with this post. Because apparently he’s supposed to defer to you and Una and Cecil, and if he doesn’t, or even if he is merely “glib,” then he “offends” you.
So where does the parade of “intolerance” end? He disagrees with you; you conclude he is intolerant of your POV. By so concluding, you are yourself intolerant of his POV. More interesting IMO is how quickly your personal tolerance evaporates when your sacred cow is gored.
Moving this “Everyone else is intolerant!” crap from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
How intolerant of you.
The hell? Krokodil disagrees and misrepresents the other side. It’s one thing to disagree; it’s quite another to lump people who argue respectfully, using research and citations, in with those who make unfounded, strident assertions.
I’ve seen this board accused, as a whole, of being shrill and intolerant, and it just ain’t so. Yes, there’s a peanut gallery, but it’s just plain disrespectful to ignore that there are those who put a lot of time and effort into debating honestly.
Is the SDMB supposed to be more tolerant than any cross section of a random population? And if so, why?
It is what it is. What I like most about it is that you find posters changing their minds or apologizing for their threadshitting and admitting their ignorance. For those alone, this bb is head and shoulders above most others. Sure it skews towards “geek”, but if those here really feel that the AV and drama clubs are predominating, start non-AV/drama threads.
I had more, but my head hurts now from trying to figure out if I’m intolerant of intolerance or so open minded my head is empty.