In America, the land of the free, people are encouraged to be as tolerant as possible, leading to movements supporting gay rights, minority rights and even animal rights, each of which is a worthy cause. Most college students — young and highly educated — have embraced those ideas of classical liberalism. (This is to be distinguished from modern liberalism in the Democratic party sense, though that certainly also applies unless you attend Bob Jones University.) Sadly, many, like the creators of YOUcsd.com, often forget that tolerance means tolerating people with different beliefs than you — whether they have a different perception of what it means to be American, married or even what good music is.

According to the “About” section of its Web site, YOUcsd.com was created by a “loosely coordinated band of malcontents” in order to develop a greater sense of community through news blogging. The concept is praiseworthy, and the blog itself certainly lives up to its stated purpose of providing fresh and informative news; it’s a very easy read and the layout is superb. A student could do much worse than to read the blog for information; in recent posts, it has covered many of the same issues as this very newspaper. All in all, it’s an amazing achievement, especially for what appears to be a small, dedicated group of students.

Unfortunately, the blog, for all its spunk, fails to actually build community, because what the creators have not recognized is that there are, in fact, many people on campus who are not liberal, do not hate the administration and are not particularly interested in the Pixies (sacrilege, I know). And those students’ opinions should be respected, too, instead of ridiculed. Far be it from me to forget their First Amendment rights, but any group of students hoping to build a community probably should not stalk peoples’ Xangas, post sections of said Xanga, then anonymously make fun of him for enjoying last year’s Fall Fest — an event that actually serves to bring people together, much more than, say, a blog replete with hack jobs and posts degrading people who don’t completely agree with its authors.

What’s really needed on this campus is some genuine dialogue, or, failing that, some courteous respect. Any group hoping to bridge gaps in the community should solicit opposing viewpoints; with its new policy of accepting submissions, YOUcsd.com may be on the right track, if it actually publishes entries that disagree with the prevailing ideology of the blog.

Something that’s easy to forget in our Bill O’Reilly/Michael Moore political reality is that not all Republicans are rich douche bags who want to cut taxes and fight wars and that not all Democrats are flip-flopping posers who want to raise taxes and kill business. (And if you think that one of the O’Reilly-Moore pair is a genius and the other is a hack, I regret to inform you that the only difference is that you agree with one and not the other.) In fact, many people are neither Republican nor Democrat, and are actually turned off by the macho posturing of both the Bush camp and the Bush haters. What’s sadly ironic, though, is that those are the people that macho posturing is designed to convince.

Even more tragic is that many probably agree with some of the things YOUcsd.com espouses without feeling the same vitriol. One can easily vote for Kerry, support gay marriage and condemn the City of San Diego for being under investigation by an “epic collection of government agencies” without resorting to personal attacks. What’s more, taking potshots at students who disagree with these ideals probably makes it harder to get Kerry elected or have more accountable governments, just as taking swings at our new chancellor because she’s a Republican or because she got a raise probably hampers whatever campus goals students hope to achieve. Believe me, if she screws up, there will be plenty of opportunities to chew her out. But students should give her a chance first, just as they should try to judge others by the content of their character rather than the composition of their playlist or the name they put on their ballot in November.