I do want to create opportunities in my life for genuine dialogue with people who consider themselves much further to the right, politically, than I do. To begin with, most mainstream Americans who consider themselves 'left-leaning' are still so far to the right of me, I'm already reaching out across what seems like a huge ideological gulf. So to me it makes sense to reach just a little farther and try to open my mind to ideas from those who consider themselves 'right-leaning', i.e. the Republicans, Tea-Partiers, and the like.
Where I find the most difficulty is in situations where the beliefs or 'opinions' of the person with whom I am trying to empathize are downright bigoted, hate-filled, and violent. If there is any language or rhetoric that will shut down my ability to open my mind to someone, it is talk of 'family values', 'traditional values', 'American values', 'Christian values', 'biblical teaching', or some combination of these. I have spent enough time listening and thinking about these to know that all of these phrases refer to outdated, bigoted, and frequently violent modes of thinking. For me, hearing someone defend themselves by saying 'I'm not a bigot, I just believe in traditional family values' is like saying, 'I'm not a bigot, I just subscribe to a bigoted set of beliefs.'
Some pro-Lifers though, I get. You see a fetus and you want to treat it like a human being, a baby. I can understand that. I don't agree with you - I don't think a fetus should be recognized as having the same rights as human beings legally, because I don't think a fetus *is* a human being. That is what I consider a genuine 'difference of opinion'. Even the most adamant pro-lifers recognize at some point that a pregnant woman is also a human being, with at minimum the same rights as the fetus. Abortion, the way I see it, is a situation where there is debate not only on what rights should exist on both sides, but whose rights deserve primary consideration when it is simply not possible for everyone's rights to be preserved.
I feel the same way about animal rights advocates and those who choose to 'proselytize' about veganism or vegetarianism. I get it. You see a cat or a dog or a cow, and you want it to be treated as having certain fundamental rights. I don't agree with you, at least in terms of a 'right to life' or a 'right to not be food', although I will admit that the human element of animal cruelty makes me want to support at least some level of legal protection for animals not to be tortured and abused. I see animal rights as being very similar to a debate about abortion - not only are the specific legal rights that should exist disputed, but the question of whose rights deserve primary consideration in specific circumstances of conflicting interests is also open.
So, I have a lot of respect, both for pro-life activists and animal rights activists. You see something happening in the world that you find morally reprehensible, unjust, cruel, violent, and you do something about it. For an activist of any kind, it's not enough to 'live and let live', i.e. to simply refrain from the behaviors that you find morally reprehensible without calling on everyone around you to stop as well. I don't personally find the idea of slaughtering an animal for food, or aborting a fetus, morally problematic. Then again, I do find wars of aggression, state-sponsored extrajudicial violence, the American system of elected representative government, most legal forms of private and corporate property, most existing law enforcement, criminal court and prison systems, and probably a lot of other things to be morally reprehensible, while it seems like the majority of people around me either disagree (and have no moral qualms) or haven't given these matters any consideration.
I really do believe in activism! If you see people suffering in the world, it isn't enough as a human being to not be the individual author of the suffering - get out there and eliminate the causes of other people's suffering! Identify the things in the world you find to be violent and unjust and eliminate those violent injustices! Just be prepared to find yourself, more likely than not, in a minority opinion about whether or not your targets of choice constitute actual injustice, oppression, or violence, and in an even smaller minority opinion about whether or not it is worth an ounce of time and effort to resist.
When I say I believe in activism, I also mean that I believe in fighting the losing battle. If you can clearly see suffering and injustice, and you believe that there is an identifiable cause, and a need for a cure, then who cares whether or not there is popular opposition to the causes of oppression, or popular support for actions that would stop it? Majority opinion is *not* a yardstick for whether or not specific policies and practices are good or bad. Human empathy requires that we fight, regardless of whether or not we think we can win. We fight to create the world we want to live in, the world we want our children to live in.
To those whose beliefs and 'opinions' lead them to fight for a world with more hate, more violence, more suffering and injustice, well, I have no 'tolerance' for you. You should not expect, nor are you entitled to, any level of respect or consideration from me. Sure enough, some anti-abortion advocates fall into this category of people who just have no regard for the health and human rights of women. But I find that not all pro-lifers are like that. Hearing the passionate, personal pleas of those pro-lifers who really just believe that a fetus is a person, and want fetuses to be treated accordingly, I have nothing but respect for them. I have nothing but respect for anyone who is doing their best to speak out against violence, as they see it, and end oppression, as they believe it exists.
