From Merriam-Webster, “tolerate”:

to allow (something that is bad, unpleasant, etc.) to exist, happen, or be done

Or, as I think of it: tolerance is begrudging acceptance.

Tolerance is eating food that you don’t particularly like, because your girlfriend’s mother made it. Tolerance is going to see a movie you don’t want to see, because all your friends want to go. Tolerance is allowing your roommate to listen to music that you personally can’t stand. This is what it is to tolerate.

On the contrary, the Left treats Tolerance as a sort of jubilant, celebratory embrace of what was/is not always acceptable behavior (see: homosexuality, transsexuality, even more recently in some circles — pedophilia) in mainstream culture.

For instance: say you don’t like homosexuality, but you don’t have a fit of violent civil-right-infringing rage whenever you see a gay person (as unfortunately some people have reacted—make no mistake, such behavior is far from tolerant and is unacceptable in a free society). You can accept that they deserve the right to lead their own life just as you lead yours. Historically, this is real tolerance. And this used to be enough to appease the Left.

But that is no longer enough for the Left. The Left will now stop at nothing short of the whole world (at least the white, male world) bowing before their worldview (sounds a little like sharia?), and partaking in their jubilant over-acceptance of every sort of degenerate lifestyle. (It is of course worth noting that not every lifestyle the Left accepts/promotes is degenerate, but the Left does tend to seek to normalize and indulge in all the degenerate ones.)

It used to be that you could simply accept that people have differences from you, and go about your own life/mind your own business while they go about theirs/mind theirs. Christians could disagree with homosexuality, promiscuity and all other manner of traditionally sinful behavior, and yet still not feel the need to viciously attack (either verbally or physically) those who engaged in such behavior. Basically, people could agree to disagree.

But as time has gone on, and as the Left has pushed the envelope more and more and their cultural power further and further, they have become less inclined to agree to disagree. In fact, they now want everyone to agree with them, or else. It is no longer enough to agree to disagree; you MUST agree with Leftist dogma and you MUST be willing to virtually proclaim it from the rooftops, lest you be ostracized, disowned, unfriended/blocked on social media, denied work, etc.

The irony of this of course is that this behavior of theirs is the exact opposite of their beloved Tolerance! They cannot even begrudgingly accept that some people only begrudgingly accept their life choices, rather than openly embrace and celebrate them. But why am I surprised? After all, this wouldn’t be the first time the Left has ignored the dictionary definition of a word, to twist it to suit their own purposes (see: racism — the manufactured “prejudice plus power” nonsense)…