Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Guess They Had To Wake Up Eventually

...via the International Herald Tribune:
"From the Left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance"

Like the man says: "Read the Whole Thing..."

A Few of the Money-Quotes:

"Two weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."
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The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."
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Government and politicians had too long failed to acknowledge the feelings of "loss and estrangement" felt by Dutch society facing parallel communities that disregard its language, laws and customs.
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Instead of reflexively offering tolerance with the expectation that things would work out in the long run, she said, the government strategy should be "bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise."
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"The success of the integration process is hindered by the disproportionate number of non-natives involved in criminality and trouble-making, by men who refuse to shake hands with women, by burqas and separate courses for women on citizenship."

"We have to stop the existence of parallel societies within our society."
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And the sweetest one-liner of all:

Newcomers, according to Ploumen, must avoid "self-designated victimization."
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Here's hoping the Dutch can be the spark that lights the fire of sensibility in Europe.

MuscleDaddy-The-Elder always says:
"Everything is cyclical - something closes up somewhere, it opens up somewhere else"

We got Obama (and deservedly so, societally speaking)

- let's hope something good comes of it, if only karmically.


- MuscleDaddy

3 comments:

  1. Here's a bumper-sticker phrase to use in responding to tolerance-nazis:

    "Tolerance doesn't equal acceptance." When they ask (if they do) what that means, tell them that tolerance means we allow the thing tolerated, but we don't accept it as good or desirable. Tolerance isn't a value-neutral, everything-is-as-good-as-everything-else concept. It is more akin to mercy, where you recognize the deficiencies and wrongnesses of something but refrain from punishing it as it warrants.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've often pointed out that, before the PC language-editors got to it, "Tolerance" referred to one's ability to withstand something without dying from it.

    Certainly a nice thing to be able to do - not actually a condition to want to test continually.

    - MD

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like that bumper sticker phrase, Doug. Short, sweet, to the point.

    ReplyDelete

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