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Tolerance

Everyone needs to be a personal finance blogger. Not so much because I think personal finance blogging is the greatest thing in the world (even though it is pretty awesome), but more so because personal finance bloggers may quite possibly be the coolest thing in the world (except for the snuggie).
The motivation for this post comes from the response I received from yesterdays article. I’ve been watching a lot of cable news while on my business trip, and have become depressed by the intolerance many of these shows portray.  On MSNBC you have Keith Olberman spending one hour bashing republicans/conservatives and everything they believe. I click over two channels only to hear Glen Beck yelling about fascism and socialist Obama. Neither host is tolerant of any view but their own. I’m not gonna lie and say I wasn’t a little hesitant to talk about a personal belief out of fear of people ripping me to shreds.
If you read yesterday’s comments, you’ll notice something magical. Tolerance. No one claimed their opinion more righteous than their counterparts. We all had our thoughts and preferences, but we all were clear that they were OUR individual beliefs. Pretty freakin’ awesome if you ask me.
Everyone should be a personal finance blogger because personal finance requires tolerance. We all have different budgeting, spending, and saving priorities. We value different things. We come from different walks of life, yet we all have the same common goal: Manage our money at least quasi-responsibly, and possibly get ridonkulously rich in the process.
Did today’s post have anything to do with personal finance? No. But I felt it was more important to thank everyone that stopped by for his or her intelligent and thoughtful contribution to yesterday’s article.  So is it just me, or does anyone else feel like their is a bit of hostility in society today?

Whoa, I just realized this post ended up being much more serious than my others. Don’t worry though, I’m still gonna kick Sallie Mae in the nutz when I see her.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. I agree with you on the hostility. Sometimes I need to turn off the news for a bit because the yelling gets to me. So many people are screaming to be heard, but they won't take a minute to listen to anyone else. Maybe it is just selective memory, but I feel that the way people treat each other keeps getting worse with each passing year.

  2. I'm not so sure Krystal would agree at Give Me Back My 5 Bucks. She was torn to shreds over her new car purchase.

    – Courtney

  3. I had not read the GMBM5B article. I've been on dial up connection the last 6 weeks and have done very little web browsing. You've sparked my curiosity so I'll head there now and read the article and responses. Thanks for sharing.

  4. I think hostility has always been around but it is getting to be more fashionable to express it in a baby-ish way. Or rather, it is getting less fashionable to suppress your hostility for the purpose of appearing civilized. Actually, I can't be sure what you're talking about since I don't watch the media (TV, videos) almost at all, so maybe I shouldn't have thrown in a guess on this one. I can say, however, that with public behavior such as driving, there does seem to be a "me! me! me first! Everyone outta my way!" mentality that is prevalent and manners while driving are pretty abhorrent. I don't believe they were always as bad.

    As for your blog – I think that is just the moral relativism taught by, well, the media – (I don't live under a rock, so I have been exposed to the media in various ways) and I think people are simply displaying tolerance they have been taught is correct in today's society, whether or not they really feel that way. Plenty have probably stayed silent because they don't think it's polite to express an opinion different than that of the blog host. And that's notable because typically those on the perceived conservative side of the spectrum are chastised for that, while those on the libertine side are held up as deserving the utmost in protection from any criticism. I'm surprised you didn't get more, "aw, what's your problem? Don't you know what century it is?" in other words.

  5. Just read some comments at Give Me Back My 5 Bucks. Hmmm some definite haterz over there. Making me question wether I should keep this post up. I will though because most of those haters were anonymous commenters. It appeared most people that had financial blogs were at least tolerant of her decision.

    Remember my article says PF bloggers are tolerant, not necessarily PF blog readers.

  6. Wowee – I just took a look and – wow. I would not want to devote time to sifting through that kind of garbage (hostile comments.) I hope I never have to, and my game plan is: 1. Never trying to get my blog extremely popular (that's an OK thing to do but it requires more management), 2. Not accepting totally anonymous comments (although anyone can register with blogger so that's essentially anonymous anyway, and 3. If someone leaves a nastygram or says something that is obviously not meant to be even remotely helpful or decent, I just delete it.

  7. Ninja, of course there's hostility in society today. Quite a bit in the blogosphere too, or in other places too where one can remain anonymous.

    Kinda makes me think of road rage, where you're behind your tinted windows, blasting your horn, giving the bird. I'm guessing you guys experience it in America too?

    It's great that people are free to express their opinions, but you have to ask 'are their opinions valid?'

    Oh yeah.. what is 'snuggie' too?

    And is their too much hostility in society today… well that's a tough question. For us younger generation, how can we answer it? What did society used to be like?

  8. You're not imagining it; there is a lot more hostility and hate in the air. People don't seem to want to listen to alternate viewpoints.

    Our "leaders" don't help as many of them specialize in this type of speech. There's a reason manners was so important in the past, it kept us civil.

  9. Well, the "problem" for Krystal and also for Trent over at Simple Dollar is purchasing a new car. This is a HUGE hot button issue for personal finance blog readers (apparently) as both of them got a lot of slack over the blog-o-sphere for buying new cars.

    I think this is part of the problem of getting your blog too big – the bigger it is the more criticism you're going to receive for every single purchase. I've even read some posts by other bloggers who are now afraid to post the things they've purchased because of getting blasted like Krystal did. And I think that is also the wrong approach. You shouldn't be afraid to talk about your personal purchases – just understand that not everyone is going to agree with you 100% of the time.

    Anyway, disagreements will happen. It is inevitable – even (especially) on the internet.

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