(Untitled)

[fpb]

If I were to state in public - not my opinion, for that is too weak a word - but what has increasingly presented itself before my eyes as true, what I have thought upon all my life and drawn from all that I have done and felt and seen, what the whole world I have lived in has convinced me of - my view of what is true and what is false - I would

Comments

[rfachir]

*I have violated my integrity in many ways*
That sounds awful, like anti-martyrdom. Is tolerance that painful? Are they actively asking you to make bad choices, or just witness their own? I agree we can't fight every battle - some are just not worth the collateral damage. Best to model the best, and reject the worst, and encourage the others to do the same. Integrity is precious, and if you don't fight for your own, who will?
Hope you feel better soon. Don't neglect yourself.

[bruno_greengras]

Is this because of what I said?
I *was* only trying to help.
You know, there isn't one truth. What is right to you might be wrong to me, and vice versa, and the truth changes as time goes by. We all make compromises when it comes to dealing with other people; it doesn't have anything to do with integrity, IMO. Does it damage your integrity to talk to me, just because I feel differently about most issues?
Someone said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Truer words have probably never been spoken, so I'll stop here.

[fpb]

No, my dear, dear Bruno, it is not. Indeed it has fairly little to do with you - although I will admit you are one of several friends I dread losing. It is something that has been brewing for weeks, and I guess that the two things that set it off were, 1), the orgy of sentimentality about the death of Christopher Reeve - which the media shamelessly used to promote embryo research, which I loathe; and, 2), the proclamation of National Coming-Out Day with every LJer just queuing up to subscribe. I felt alone, and having had some taste of the temper of fandom at large, I felt unable to open my mouth without drawing yet another storm of protest, insults and threats. And what bothered me most was that if I ever did, I would be implicitly criticizing people I have come to care for greatly - by no means only you, though you are one of them.

[fpb]

Another thing that happened was that I had just visited the blog of an Italian Catholic journalist whom I greatly respect, and I had found a comment thread invaded, usurped I would say (for what are these people doing in an area of debate about Church matters?) by hate-filled atheists and gay activists using language I would not use even to them. I began to have this strong feeling that we Catholics are really being squeezed out of the debate, that the younger generation has, in the main, no time for us and no willingness to listen, that it is making intolerance into a virtue. Perhaps I exaggerate. But I have met enough of it that I do not think I am just imagining it.