Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Tolerance In San Francisco

There seems to be some debate as to whether Yale's a cappella group was jumped and beaten up because they sang the Star Spangled Banner or because they were being hit on (pardon the pun) too much by the locals, but whatever the case, I think Scott Makenzie was wrong when he said

If you're going to San Francisco
You're going to meet some gentle people there.

Anyway, isn't it interesting how the denizens of that city keep showing how intolerant they are, as they break their arms patting themselves on the back congratulating themselves for how tolerant they are?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your generalizing all of San Francisco and expecting all people to follow that generalization, a very Republican thing to do. Assuming that San Francisco is actually on average more tolerant then most other cities, which I have no idea how true that assumption is, it does not guarantee that there won't be some people who are intolerant. Seriously, I know you have the ability to write more worthwhile posts, I just read a ton of them.

Darren said...

Ron,

While chastising me for generalizing, you yourself generalize: "a very Republican thing to do". Bravo.

The fact that San Francisco is generally welcoming to gays does not make it a "tolerant" city. On the contrary, it is among the most intolerant places I've been anywhere on the planet (outside of Saudi Arabia). I've written several times about the intolerance of that city in particular, and of lefties in general. You're a bright boy, you should see the trend there.

Zombietime is a photoessayist in the SF Bay Area. Since each picture is worth a thousand words, I encourage you to see, with your own eyes, these scores of thousands of words of tolerance:
http://www.zombietime.com/walk_for_life/
http://www.zombietime.com/stop_the_us_israeli_war_8_12_2006/

Anonymous said...

As someone who has college aged kids that would be involved in the choral section of such incident I am appalled. What happened to music appreciation? What happened to general manners? What happened to the freedom to perform? Yale isn't the most conservative place on earth, but it obviously has some sense of place in terms of the fact that without this nation, these self-proclaimed freedoms would cease to exist. I won't be going to SF. I also won't be going to California. I tried it once and from the lack of balance in the news to the broadbased tolerance for no work ethic, it makes the place oppressive. I know there are lovely piece of land there and some great people hidden behind the media facade, but honestly, I dont' know how anyone manages to stay-especially when they are conservative.

Anonymous said...

........I just went to several of the different pages on zombietime....I am appalled. I am sickened. And now I think we need to wage war there. I have never felt to totally alienated by people who claim to be Americans in my whole life. The arrogance, the lack of consideration, the total absence of anything remotely attached to the appreciation of the fact that in most other countries, people who act out in this way would be in the deepest darkest jail cell on earth. Honestly, how to you stay in that state and not go mad?

Darren said...

EllenK, I remember that I'm an American first, and a Californian second. And real estate-wise, most of California is conservative. Really, it's just the Bay Area and LA areas that are exceedingly liberal, and I avoid those areas.

Although, tomorrow I'm planning on going up into the Gold Country to the 5th Annual Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City. My sole purpose is to take pictures of the granola-eating, tree-hugging nutjobs and their signs (if any) and cars. But that's just for entertainment.

Anonymous said...

Ronnie -

Speaking as a longtime Bay Area resident, the assumption that San Francisco (or Berkeley, for that matter,) is any more tolerant is an extremely faulty one. Each of these cities, in fact, is dominated by a vocal group that is acutely intolerant of people and ideas that do not meet their standards. A great example of this is the recent expulsion of JROTC from SF's schools even though all stakeholders, parents, students, teachers, and administrators, wanted it to stay. That said, a good number of San Franciscans (and Berkeleyites) are really quite tolerant people, but they're not the vocal ones, and they don't run the show.