“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds"

[mpenny]

I had a long, complicated rant written out here, and I just highlighted the whole of it and hit the 'delete' key.  The rant was a response to two main things: the comment thread on this article and other similar sentiments I've read/heard recently, and an acquaintance stating matter of factly (read: not as a personal opinion or belief) that God

Comments

[mpenny]

I absolutely agree that everyone should have the right to express their views. The way I see it, there is often too much done to suppress people from voicing their opinions, but not enough done at a grassroots level to encourage people to be more informed and open-minded in the first place.

I'm certainly not trying to say that the people I disagree with shouldn't express their views. While I may disagree with these views, it's the tone in which they're expressed that's been a recent issue for me. It upsets me when people express themselves in a way that suggests that different views couldn't be equally valid. I feel like 'right' and 'wrong' (in the sense of 'correct' and 'incorrect') are so relative, so it shocks me when I read such black and white expressions of beliefs. I'll fully support freedom of expression, but I feel that when people voice their opinions in a way that insists that they are right, they are not encouraging healthy, open-minded discussion of the topic, but rather either cutting off an opportunity for discussion or stirring up conflict.