The United States of America is the Most Tolerant Nation in the World

The United States of America is the most tolerant nation in the world.

• We tolerate the highest number of homicides among industrialized nations.
• We tolerate growing and harmful inequality.
• We tolerate black on black crime.
• We tolerate white on white crime.
• We tolerate citizen on citizen crime.
• We tolerate ignorance.
• We tolerate racism. 
• We tolerate violence.
• We tolerate our crumbling infrastructure.
• We tolerate mistreatment of veterans.
• We tolerate poverty, and blame its victims.
• We tolerate endless wars in Asia.
• We tolerate sexism.
• We tolerate female income inequality.
• We tolerate cultural stereotypes.
• We tolerate xenophobia.
• We tolerate anti-Semitism.
• We tolerate discrimination and hatred cloaked in the mantle of “religious freedom”.
• We tolerate religious persecution.
• We tolerate religious discrimination and violence.
• We tolerate homophobia.
• We tolerate rape and the rape/bro culture.
• We tolerate everyone’s guns.
• We tolerate outrageous and ridiculous CEO pay.
• We tolerate homelessness.
• We tolerate poverty.
• We tolerate the erosion of the labor movement.
• We tolerate the erosion of the middle class, which built this country.
• We tolerate the deification of the super-wealthy as “job creators” who are above law and policy.
• We tolerate people not having access to health care.
• We tolerate our idiotic, wasteful health “insurance” system.
• We tolerate truancy.
• We tolerate the assault on public education.
• We tolerate religious fanaticism.
• We tolerate government overreach.
• We tolerate governmental corruption.
• We tolerate do-nothing incumbents, year after year.
• We tolerate unlimited money in politics.
• We tolerate hate speech and hate radio.
• We tolerate the dictatorship of the bureaucracy.
• We tolerate institutional reluctance to modernize and change.
• We tolerate not being the best at things, and we tolerate not caring about it.
• We tolerate economic and political theories long proven to be nonsense.
• We tolerate cops killing unarmed people for minor offenses.
• We tolerate government violence and police brutality.
• We tolerate segregation.
• We tolerate the privatization of essential public services.

Like I said, America is the most tolerant place in the world. We need to stop using that word as something positive.

When used in that context we mean to say, be nice to one-another. Don’t discriminate or be hateful. But that’s a given. We should replace the wishy-washy trope of “tolerance” with “kindness” or “acceptance” if not silence.

For instance, if you do a Google image search of “tolerance”, it’s replete with pictures of the “COEXIST” bumper sticker, and people being kind to others. No one is urging anyone to be tolerant of the list shown above.  “Tolerance” of terrorism, assault, or murder isn’t on the table.

We should aspire to be more than – better than – just “tolerant” of people’s differences, but embrace the good and combat the bad – together.

Stop being so damn tolerant. Start being kind and just.