Is it just me, or is the “oh so tolerant and accepting of everything” Left a little bigoted and narrow-minded these days?

I mean, from Michelle Malkin’s inbox we see she’s been called a “chink”, a “f***ing slanty-eyed c**t” and other delightful phrases.

You’ve got folks at Meta-Filter wondering about Scott McClellan being gay (a charge they like to throw around like you’re average 14-year old. “Hey McClellan… you’re GAY!! Haw haw haw”).

A sampling:

Between the gay-question-mark that is McClellan, Cheney’s lesbian daughter (complete with same sex life-partner) and gay-operatives like Gannon (plus all the others we HAVEN’T heard about yet)… Not to mention the fact that Bush surrounds himself with unmarried spinster cheerleaders. This administration is practically one big alternative lifestyle showcase.

I thought the Left was supposed to be a little more open minded and tolerant of people who are different than them.

Jim: Sorry, Cam. After the CBS piece, TKS posts, and the lovely Washington Post profile of a lefty blogger who contributes to Daily Kos, it’s hard to come up with anything new to say when individuals on the left vomit forth name calling and nastiness that appall everyone, including their more decent and fair-minded ideological brethren. Of course they’re not “oh so tolerant and accepting of everything” and I’m assuming you “these days” comment was sarcastic. They never were tolerant and accepting. I have to wonder if there is anyone left who actually buys into that line anymore. Of course they’re not “open minded and tolerant of people who are different than them.”

When you compare societies - say, American and Turkish, or American and Chinese, or even Japanese for that matter - you find some groups of people are more tolerant of differences than others. But the folks who e-mail Michelle Malkin or post at Metafilter have never cared about tolerating those who are different; their actions are to attack, insult, smear, and swear at those who think differently. Attacking those who dissent from their worldview is pretty much the purpose of their lives.

And this is why I’ve grown increasingly tired of the blogosphere. What was once shocking is now par for the course. Of course folks are now circulating Malkin’s home address and phone number. If they could physically harm her, they would. Their worldview is that they are inherently good, that those who are on the other side of the ideological divide are irredeemably evil, and that any action - including harassment or worse - is justified, because they’re fighting the good fight. (I’m sure you recall the acts of vandalism and violence that Malkin detailed in the run-up to the election.)

The proliferation of folks who see political differences as a justification for everything from verbal and online abuse to harassment to outright violent attacks is a tremendously disturbing trend… and sadly, I have absolutely no idea how to mitigate this.