Vice always demands acceptance, not tolerance
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
I recently saw a conversation on X (formerly Twitter) where a mother had saved up to give her daughter a large gift. One of the responses caught my eye: “Living below your means is not a virtue, boomer.” This person went on to brag about how he always lives above his means and it works fine for him.
OK, great. That’s just peachy. I could not possibly care less how he lives his life. But the attitude is telling: Why do you have to advertise it? Why do you have to evangelize for living above your means? (I use that italicized word intentionally.) Imagine being angry that someone else is making different financial choices in his life, and saving more than you do. What kind of mentality leads to that anger?
This is because when someone behaves irresponsibly or immorally, that person demands acceptance of his behavior, not tolerance of it. Tolerance is still bad if you disagree with something. We actually see Leftist radicals screeching that if men do not want to date “trans women” - meaning biological men, often with intact male genitals - they are “transphobic. It is not enough to simply live your life as a DINK. You have to evangelize for the DINK lifestyle. There are people who actually get angry about “no porn November,” where men voluntarily agree to not use pornography for one month of the year. They are not trying to criminalize it. They are just pledging to not use it. How could someone’s non-participation in your habit be offensive?
This attitude extends to public policy. It is not enough to demand that government simply stay out of people’s lives: Government must endorse that behavior and then send armed agents of the state to force everyone else to pay for it. This is why objecting to tax funding for abortion providers is falsely condemned as “anti-choice,” and objecting to spending tax money on “gender affirming hormones” leads to calls to “leave trans people alone.” If you are against subsidizing something, that is the same as wanting to criminalize it. Simply put, they think they have a right to your money. If you object, you are oppressing them.
Demanding tolerance for sin, vice or even selfishness is and always has been a lie. Demands for tolerance always become demands for acceptance, endorsement and eventually government subsidies. Too many Americans were fooled by this in decades past, and are now waking up to realize where “tolerance” always ends. This is what it really means to be woke.