Crime and Tolerance

[vovat]

I filled out an application at a bookstore today. It asked a few yes or no questions, and they all had a "Yes" check box and then a "No" box, with one exception. The question asking if I'd been convicted of a crime had the "No" box first. Are they hoping people will slip up and admit to crimes they didn't commit? Or are they just trying to see if you're paying attention?

Anyway, to get to the main thrust of this post, I generally consider myself to be a fairly tolerant person, but there are some behaviors that I just have trouble accepting. A big one here is drug use. I have trouble respecting people who do drugs. Is that wrong? I mean, I can justify it to myself by saying that it's a matter of choice, and drug users made a stupid choice. I'm sure there are people who can do drugs without hurting anybody, and who can still function normally. It still makes me uncomfortable, though. Maybe it's largely my incredibly sheltered life. Drugs were just never part of my paradigm, and it's disturbing that they are for a significant portion of society. Am I being intolerant through ignorance? I have to wonder about that sometimes. There are other kinds of behavior I tend to be intolerant toward, like sleeping around, for instance. The drug issue is the one I seem to keep coming back to, though.

I've been looking up stuff about similarities between the Bible and pagan religions. There are some interesting comparisons out there. Not that they'd be likely to interest most other people. I'm so boring, aren't I?

Comments

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

others' drug use is among one of the many things that prevents me from wanting being friends with most people (hence my loner-ness, hah) ...i just can't relate to people like that, i guess.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Nope, I'm pretty much the same way. I mean, I wouldn't stop being friends with folks who use drugs or whatnot, and I've been friends with a lot of folks who do, but it's one of those things that's sort of a Ding in the Windshield of Respect For Others. Or somethin'. (Of course, I kinda have the same thing going on for drinkers, too.) (And, oddly enough, I do think that most drugs should be legalized anyway, though. How I usually put it is that they should be legal, but not destigmatized, so basically you can be a stupid pothead and not go to jail, but I can still call you a stupid pothead.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the issue of legality. Drug use is stupid, but you shouldn't go to jail just for being stupid, unless you're actually hurting someone.

I guess I'm a little more lenient about drinking than about other drugs, although I don't drink much myself.

[revme.livejournal.com]

That is pretty much my view on the subject. Stupidity is stupid, but it shouldn't be illegalstupid, providing it's only being stupid to themselves.

My family's just chock full of alcoholics, so I tend to be harsher on that sorta thing. But I know people who are responsible drinkers, and as far as I can tell, that's as good as not drinking at all (even if the latter is preferable). But yeah, my family sorta lets me know through example that Drinking and Assholery aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

To me, it seems especially dumb when someone drinks heavily or does drugs when they know people who have been messed up by those things. It's like, "Bad stuff happened to my friends and/or family, but it won't happen to me!"