Saturday, February 20, 2016

Bigot

Ira Panganiban had this to say on the Pacquiao controversy

“Guess what the definition of “Bigot” is? Here, let me tell you, “bigot – a person who has no tolerance for the belief and opinion of others and forces their own opinion on others,” he said.

“Now, who is the bigot? Who cannot take the opinion of others and forces their belief on him? Take a wild guess,” he added.

That is not the definition of bigot or bigotry, according to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bigot) a bigot is someone who "strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)"

The difference between the actual definition of bigot and the one that Ira Panganiban espouses is the word, unfairly, other definitions replace unfairly with irrational. Because bigotry means you irrationally or unfairly hate the ideas, opinion, etc. etc.

So no, criticism of Pacquiao and his statement does not comprise bigotry, because it is rational to be intolerant of bigoted people who thinks his fellow men are worse than animals and should be put to death.


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