Pew Research Poll- The most intolerant crowd identified:

[diamond]

Something most sensible people have realized for years:

Pew: Liberals most intolerant online ? Hot Air

A new survey from Pew confirms that liberals are the least tolerant of differing opinions, at least on line

Liberals are the most likely to have taken each of these steps to block, unfriend, or hide. In all, 28% of liberals have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on SNS because of one of these reasons, compared with 16% of conservatives and 14% of moderates

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You do the math.

xxox


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[Diemen]

 

[Canadiens1131]

It is an interesting survey; especially since the internet, which we presume to be a great portal to varying points of view, also is a very good way to encourage groupthink with people turtling in forum communities and blogs with only their very specific opinions taken as standard.

I wonder if we can suss out that liberals are less tolerant to bigotry than conservatives? Maybe that has something to do with this....

Basic human rights vs. conservative values on marriage and gender.
The slow, forward-moving process of scientific research vs. reliance on religious faith for concrete policy decisions.

There is no real debate to be had there, and those are two internet hot topics at the moment. If I had any super-religious friends on social media, and one of them were up for debating climate change or marriage equality, there is no way to debate, ''Well, the Bible tells me X and Y and that is what I will always believe.'' So why even try to engage in a reasoned debate?

I don't even want to debate politics on social media most of the time, to be honest. And this is coming as a college student. I know my friends' views already, so there is no ''woah, what the fuck'' moment where an acquaintance posts something inflammatory about gay people being disgusting in his or her opinion.

 

[indra]

I found this bit worth a smile:

For some full disclosure, I’ve blocked more than a few people on Twitter. I didn’t do it for disagreements, but for being unpleasant about disagreements. I consider Twitter to be a true social network; I don’t hang out with unpleasant people in real life, and so I see no need to do so in virtual life. Twitter is my water cooler, my hangout in slack time between bursts of writing. I’m happy to have a debate, but when it gets insulting, unpleasant, and intellectually dishonest, I take a pass.

The author then goes on to state that doesn't count....

 

[trojanchick99]

It's true. I'm intolerant of racists, misogynists and homophobes. I've blocked people from my Facebook and Twitter who exhibit those characteristics.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm guessing the other side of that research is that conservatives are more intolerant in real life?

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Whoa. People are intolerant and hypocritical sometimes?

Who knew.

 

[Liesje]

It's true. I'm intolerant of racists, misogynists and homophobes.

My thoughts exactly. Why should I be tolerant of bigots poking their nose around where they have no business?

 

[PhilsFan]

So, we're defining tolerance now by how receptive people are to idiots on the Internet? Conservatives are proud they read more YouTube comments or something?

 

[The Sad Punk]

Intolerant of intolerance.

 

[cobl04]

What diemen said. Not sure tolerance of intolerance is something to be super duper proud of.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

So, we're defining tolerance now by how receptive people are to idiots on the Internet? Conservatives are proud they read more YouTube comments or something?

The YouTube comments section can indeed be a truly frightening place. I often go back and forth between who's worse, them or the people in the Yahoo! comments section.

 

[Canadiens1131]

The YouTube comments section can indeed be a truly frightening place. I often go back and forth between who's worse, them or the people in the Yahoo! comments section.

How is babby formed?

 

[The Sad Punk]

THEY NEED TO DO WAY lNSTAIN MOTHER>

AOL comments are among the worst I've seen, easily.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

who kill thier babbys.

i've never had the (dis?)pleasure of reading aol comments.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

This research poll stinks. [/pewjoke]

 

[mama cass]

I found this bit worth a smile:



The author then goes on to state that doesn't count....

my reasoning is, if i won't put up with something in real life, there is no reason for me to put up with it on facebook or wherever... i have unfriended/blocked people for exactly those reasons...

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i have several friends on facebook who list themselves as either moderate or republican, though only one of them actually posts anything, even then it's basically just the new version of blindly forwarding emails someone sent: links from dubious sources without any commentary or anything. i've never thought of blocking her, even just from appearing on my feed, or unfriending her.

i'm not acting like i'm some perfect person who doesn't mind reading political stuff i disagree with, but i just tune it out on my feed. i do more eyerolling over her obsession over army wives than anything else.

 

[coolian2]

i have a number of friends on facebook who don't share my political and religious beliefs.

thing is, they largely express their opinions (if at all) with tact and good sense. if they were to express something in a manner of which it feels like we see from so many american conservatives now, they'd be gone as fast as facebook would load.

 

[Irvine511]

the only person who has defriended me (at least to my knowledge) over political stuff was a conservative.

but then, i avoid politics on FB as much as humanly possible.

 

[Pearl]

Most of my friends on Facebook share my views politically and religious. Those that don't voice theirs occasionally, but enough to make me consider getting rid of them. Too bad I can't unfriend my super conservative sister. Instead I post "liberal" issues and comments to hopefully annoy her but so far she had yet to complain

 

[PhilsFan]

For the record, I have a massive extended family almost entirely peopled by conservatives, many of them extremely conservative. I'm entirely tolerant of people with conservative viewpoints, I simply will refrain from talking politics with them.

 

[U2DMfan]

Judging by the post title, I thought for sure the poll was going to say 'Mean Girls'.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Most of my friends on Facebook share my views politically and religious. Those that don't voice theirs occasionally, but enough to make me consider getting rid of them.

Same on the friend front. I have a cousin who is DEEPLY conservative and posts a lot of anti-Obama stuff, I guess, but I'm not on Facebook enough to read it enough to be annoyed by it.

I have other family members who are moderately conservative at best, but they're not on Facebook to begin with.

As has been shown on these boards, I have no problem whatsoever debating with conservative people. But yes, it is awfully hard for me to tolerate homophobia, or racist stuff about Obama (or in general, really) or crap like that. That has nothing to do with politics, that has everything to do with being a decent human being.

 

[Liesje]

For the record, I have a massive extended family almost entirely peopled by conservatives, many of them extremely conservative. I'm entirely tolerant of people with conservative viewpoints, I simply will refrain from talking politics with them.

Ditto.

I've only removed one "friend" from my Facebook for any sort of political or religious disagreement and that was for posting one of those stupid quote pics that was either glorifying Hitler or comparing someone else to Hitler, the point was lost on me. Either way it was inappropriate and I have no idea why I had friended that person in the first place.

 

[Pearl]

For the record, I have a massive extended family almost entirely peopled by conservatives, many of them extremely conservative. I'm entirely tolerant of people with conservative viewpoints, I simply will refrain from talking politics with them.

I would do the same, if they refrained from discussing politics which is impossible since my family is politics obsessed. My parents, particularly my father, are always drilling me with radical conservative beliefs and my sister does the same whenever she visits from North Carolina. I've tried saying I don't want to talk about it but I got verbal attacks over that. I just yes them to death, or even attempt to argue with them, but no luck. I really believe there's no hope for common ground with my family.

Anyway, I don't flood my Facebook with liberal ideologies; I do it whenever something catches my eye. It's just that I wonder what my sister thinks when she sees them. Does she get outraged? She probably does, but she never brings it up.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

basically, i figure the ones who got polled must've been the type who have 1000 friends on facebook, which then kinda makes you wonder how they even managed to see the offensive posts with all those friends.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Younger people use social networks more often, especially women. That skews extremely liberal. Conservatives using social networks would tend to skew older and male which means they'd be less likely to give a shit about blocking people. Plus, older people and men have much smaller networks both in the real world and online, so they'd have less reason to remove 1 out of 100 people than some girl would who has 1,000 friends and notices that one posts something she really despises that shows up on her feed. Basically, your friends are more expendable when you have more, so the youth/sex divide between the two main political ideals would obviously lead to more women blocking somebody.

Also, the questions aren't based on specific political disagreements except for the one that is "argued about political issues" and that one has a whopping divide of 4%. The other political one is about posting about politics too often, but remember, that's something teen girls would be most likely to loathe or block because they just don't give a shit.

Imagine you're a young guy and you're conservative. In most areas of the country, the people you know would be liberal. Therefore, you disagree with a lot more people and have to bear being in the minority whereas the opposite side has more reason to be shocked by your comments because they aren't used to them, etc. But you as a young guy, are you really going to block people you disagree with politically, especially since most of them happen to be young women that you want to have sex with?

I read another survey that finds that being brought up in a variety of cultures/viewpoints tends to lead to a more liberalized mindset. So if tolerance breeds liberalism, then what does intolerance breed...?

 

[moiph]

I get emails from certain family members all the time about how Obama is the new Hitler and Rush Limbaugh is being treated unfairly and how if we don't vote Santorum in Obama is going to sell America to China because he's evil. I ignore them. I respect conservative viewpoints, myself being a moderate, but there's a fine line between "conservative" and being ignorant. It's too bad that many conservatives I see cross it. I have seen the occasional liberal crossing it (extremists who believed that soviet Russia had a great government and was full of happy fulfilled human beings). Either way, I'm not too surprised. Most of the "liberal" people I know are very involve in human rights and have very good arguments for preserving them. When they argue that women should have rights and they get scoffed at, I can't say I blame them for defriending or being intolerant of the other person.

 

[LemonMelon]

AOL comments are among the worst I've seen, easily.

I give them a break. Listening to an AOL user is like taking advice from a guy who's been trapped in a cardboard box for 20 years.