What price would you be willing to pay to be treated well by the left-wing?

I'm not involved in politics (I'm not a member of any political party or part of any political network), but it's an issue that interests me as a citizen.

Principles versus fashions: the lesson offered by a man who folded his arms
The left that wants to jump over the wall to East Berlin and sail on a raft to Cuba

The latter is obvious, as anyone can see from a regular reader of this blog, where I approach political issues from a clear perspective: that of my principles. As is sadly common in our society, this comes at a price, which includes enduring insults, accusations, contempt, and worse from people on the left, simply for holding ideas that oppose their own.

Sometimes, especially seeing the way other people approach public debate on political issues, I've wondered what I would have to do to receive better treatment from those who express their hatred toward me in this way simply because I don't share their political opinions. I can only think of two options (if anyone knows of any others, I encourage you to post them in the comments below): give in on my principles to appease those who despise them, or simply remain silent, not necessarily on all the issues I address, but on the most controversial ones.

Obviously, if I chose either of those two options, I'd probably have a more relaxed life. I wouldn't have to suffer all those attacks (I've been suffering them for 20 years now, as long as I've been editing this blog), and I'd probably receive some praise instead of insults.

The problem is that if we all have to think alike to avoid attacks, then democracy is doomed to die. Democracy isn't just about voting for your political representatives every four years. Without ideological pluralism, without the freedom to express ideas that others don't like, there is no democracy.

Unfortunately, in our society there are people who confuse coexistence and even tolerance with the need to subscribe to a single way of thinking, as if within their ideological parameters everything is "hate" and those who hold different opinions aren't dissenters, but bad people simply for disagreeing. That is the perverse way of understanding the debate of ideas that the left, or a large part of it, has been promoting for far too long. So long that some have assumed that framework of thought and submitted to it, to a greater or lesser extent.

If we want a better society, we must accept that in any country there are people with different opinions. In the past, Spain was a dictatorship in which left-wing people suffered reprisals for their opinions, but for years now, in Spain, we have had the paradox of living in a democracy in which many left-wing people believe they have the right to impose their opinions on others, and in some cases even to attack others for ideological reasons, accepting the lie that all those who disagree with the left are "fascists" and deserve a beating. That has to end. This is a democracy, not a socialist dictatorship, even if some seem determined to impose one on us.

---

Photo: El Confidencial. A violent far-left protest in Madrid in February 2015.