Carol Hunt: You're not a bigot for refusing to accept intolerance

Carol Hunt Twitter

April 21 2013 04:03 AM

Amnesty Ireland boss Colm O'Gorman ruffled a few feathers on Twitter last Monday when he posted: "You know what? I'm getting sick and tired of the expectation that we must all be tolerant of gross bigotry and intolerance." And later when he had received a number of ad hominem attacks for this opinion, he added: "Sometimes it is clear that the other is wrong. Discrimination, hate speech and bigotry ARE wrong."

But what exactly is the definition of bigotry? Is it intolerance to difference? A blank refusal to accept the opinions of others? Is my bigot your freedom of speech activist? Or is "bigot" just a word bandied about by politically correct people who don't like to be argued with?

The Oxford dictionary defines a bigot as "a person who has very strong, unreasonable beliefs or opinions about race, religion or politics and who will not listen to or accept the opinions of anyone who disagrees". Naturally, few people want to admit to being one.

In using the "b" word, O'Gorman was commenting on the reactions of some to the Constitutional Convention's vote last weekend which recommended, overwhelmingly, that the Constitution be changed to allow for civil marriage for same sex couples. It seems as if we've finally grown up! But not everyone was thrilled. And, disappointingly, there was no spontaneous bursting into a Maori love song.

You can probably guess, from the way I have phrased the above, what my view of the whole affair is. And you'd be right. I am pro-marriage for all who wish to enter into that civic commitment. (I don't see why the loss of a carefree, single life should be a fate solely reserved for heterosexuals). I believe children can blossom wonderfully if they grow up in a stable loving home with parents of either sex or both. And I believe the opposition to same sex marriage mirrors historical arguments against race equality, religious freedoms and female enfranchisement.

Enlightenment is a process, it takes time, but it is headed in the right direction. And for those who believe we're all going to hell in a hand cart because of the increase in secularism, think again. In the past few centuries we have seen moral attitudes – and consequently legislation – drastically change the lives of black people, women, homosexuals, the poor and other previously oppressed groups, for the better.

Things change. John Locke, the liberal philosopher credited with all the good bits in the American constitution (right to life, liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness), didn't believe that atheists should be allowed equal rights. And before any Catholics out there start nodding in agreement; he put the subjects of the Church of Rome in the same category – as their allegiance was to a foreign prince.

Slavery as practised in the 18 and 19th Centuries would be anathema to us today, yet banning it was considered radical, dangerous and immoral when first agitated for. Natural law seemingly had decreed that black people were lesser beings than whites. Later this changed to equal but different.

Similarly women were denied the vote because it was argued that they were rationally inferior. And practising homosexuals were charged as criminals. Yet today, as part of our emancipatory journey, the majority in Ireland support same sex marriage. This is indeed moral progress.

Opponents will argue otherwise of course. And that is what happens in a secular democracy; people are entitled to their views, no matter how irrational or prejudiced those on the other side consider them.

What a person believes is their own affair. You can believe that homosexuals or women or red-heads (or auburn-haired lesbians) are responsible for every natural disaster to hit mankind in the past three centuries if you wish and you'll still retain all the civic freedoms and rights of a citizen.

Those who use the "b" word are immediately labelled intolerant of differing beliefs. And of course, intolerance in our very politically correct world is seen as backward, illiberal, a denial of freedom of speech. Consequently, the argument goes, the Colm O'Gormans of this world are, paradoxically, showing themselves to be bigoted and intolerant by accusing others of same.

There are two answers to that: firstly, those who advocate marriage for all, in the same way as those who advocated the legalisation of contraception and divorce, are not denying people who oppose them their right not to marry the person they love, or not to use contraception etc. If you don't agree with contraception, don't use it. Ditto, if you don't agree with same sex marriage, no one's forcing you to marry a gay person.

Similarly, asserting that if James and John or Sally and Anna are allowed to get married and rear children then your own marriage or your role as a parent is automatically invalidated isn't an argument – it's juvenile sulking because another group is getting equal treatment. (And again for the hard of hearing or determinedly gullible: there is NO evidence whatsoever that children of same-sex couples suffer any detrimental effects).

My youngest used to do it when I gave his sister the same chocolate biscuit as him. He wanted to believe that he was extra special and for her to be denied one. Now, he's just happy to get the biscuit.

Secondly, there's a distinction between healthy tolerance of difference and blind moral relativism. All ideas, customs and beliefs are not equal. Pretending that they are is potentially catastrophic for democracy, justice and morality.

Karl Popper, the philosopher, probably put it best when he wrote: "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them . . . We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant".

Carol Hunt: You're not a bigot for refusing to accept intolerance

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