Book reviews, art, gaming, Objectivism and thoughts on other topics as they occur.

Mar 17, 2016

Judgment-free Zone

I find the occasional requests I get from people to "not hate" or "not judge" on their comments when I disagree with them to be weirdly ironic.

I don't try to silence the opposition.  I fully support your right to say whatever you damn well please.  When you say "don't hate" or "don't judge", YOU are trying to silence ME.  You are telling me, flat out, that my opinion isn't welcome here and I should just SHUT UP.

I find that hateful in the extreme.  Disagreeing with you is not telling you to shut up.  I expect you to return the favor instead of being a disingenuous hypocrite.  The double standard involved here is huge, glaring, and ugly, and points out the enormous inherent contradiction in nihilist thought--otherwise known as "multiculturalism" or "egalitarianism".

The foundation of this view, epistemologically, is the belief that nobody can really KNOW what is true or false.  Thus, all ideas are equally valid.  Thus one "shouldn't judge" and disagreement is "hate".  "Tolerance" is the only virtue.  Tolerance, that is, of any viewpoint EXCEPT disagreement!  He who rejects disagreement as "intolerant" is BEING "intolerant".

How anyone could square this with themselves I do not know, but I see it everywhere.  "Nobody can know who's wrong or right--except I'm right and you're wrong so you should just shut up."  Well, if NOBODY can know, how do YOU know?