You cannot preach tolerance and practice suppression at the same time. It causes you to lose credibility. What say you?

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 09:18:46 -0500

Just want your opinion on that statement.

Response by SFC Josh Watson made Dec 20 at 2013 11:16 AM

SFC Josh Watson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 11:16:05 -0500

I agree. Can't elaborate anymore than that.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Dec 20 at 2013 11:51 AM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 11:51:59 -0500

You may be right, but institutionally we sure try our best to get them both going at the same time ;)

Response by Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 22 at 2013 11:35 AM

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 11:35:36 -0500

We love to try and have our cake and eat it too. The closest thing to a good answer I've come up with is this - in uniform, preach nothing but _professionalism_. It doesn't answer everything, but it keeps the (VERY PERSONALIZED) battles over things like diversity, free speech, freedom of conscience in context where they don't boil over and harm unit cohesion. The poster is right, the more you preach tolerance and diversity, the more you have to accept that unit cohesion might suffer as a result (and if you think I'm making this up, there's been a lot of academic research and study on the psychology of the subject - there was a study out of University of Michigan recently that tends to not make EEO types particularly happy, because it says that's it basically impossible to maximize both diversity and social cohesion through policy). It's really a question of tradeoffs and how much you're willing to accept.