> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>> In other words, having a conviction and trying to persuade others of
>> that conviction is impolite. I have long suspected that Kelley belonged
>> to that category of freshmen comp students who believed that criticizing
>> a belief was a suppression of free speech. This seems to confirm that
>> suspicion.
>
> There's a difference between having a conviction and trying to
> persuade others of that conviction, on one hand, and being
> patronizing and insulting to people who don't agree with you, on the
> other.
>
Moreover, if you believe that people aren't responsible for their "beliefs" and so can't be gotten to change them through persuasion, trying to persuade them to change their beliefs, taking offense at their beliefs and patronizing and insulting them because of their beliefs are all inconsistent with your belief about "beliefs".
Ted