[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: Liberalism Lives

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Posted by Ali Eteraz:
Liberalism Lives
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1172700587.shtml


   At Eteraz.Org you get banned if you're a Muslim and you call another
   Muslim a non-Muslim. [We have yet to have a non-Muslim call a Muslim a
   non-Muslim, though I just saw that in the comments here].

   You also get banned if you come in saying stuff like Muhammad was a
   pedophile (empirically wrong); or Allah is a moon god (at best,
   empirically unverifiable).

   Point is, blogs are communities modeled, usually, in the image of the
   maker.

   What that maker is willing to tolerate from his/her commentators (or
   other frontpagers) is a reflection of the maker.

   At my site I would not accept a frontpager saying that Sunnis are
   superior to Shi'a or that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims. That is
   my ideological purity (with respect to frontpagers).

   Dean has his own. He doesn't want to be taken as the representative of
   people whom he believes to be illiberal. Accept that.

   I find it amusing that people are dissing Dean for not being
   "tolerant" of their opinions.

   Since when did liberalism become about "tolerance"? I thought the
   entire problem "you guys" (that includes me) had with the ultra left
   was that we *wanted* to be able to say "this is liberal" and "this is
   not liberal." We wanted to be able to be intolerant, to not be PC, to
   not suck up what we really feel for the sake of a fake academic
   hypocrisy. Dean is sticking to his torch. It's just that this time
   some of the people who were used to being in agreement with him are
   getting burnt.

   Let me say it again, the liberal tradition isn't about NOT drawing
   lines in the sand. It is about drawing such lines. What it isn't about
   is resorting to violence. I don't see any violence here; just a lot of
   disagreement and people who disagree going their own way.

   As such, liberalism lives.