Acceptance vs. Tolerance

The other day,  in my political science class, my professor was talking about the academic bill of rights, and whether or not it is a statemnet of liberal or conservatism principles. The class debated, and what it came down to is that yes, they thought it was liberal, and yes it was unfair to the conservatives; that they (the conservatives) shouldn't have to accept our (liberal) ideas if we won't listen to theirs. One girl made the point that they they shouldn't be forced to tolerate us since we didn't let them teach their opinions, to which our professor replied 'But should the liberals accept my brother in laws positions?"*Note:  The professor dislikes her brother in law, due to his white separatism ideals.

Which has gotten me to debate internally the differences between acceptance and tolerance. Needless to say, it had occupied my thoughts for much of the class after these two statements, and I wanted to let my thoughts settle before I ran off a huge blog post about my undeveloped notions.

Now that it's been a couple of hours...well a lot of hours, I'm still stuck on the difference between acceptance and tolerance. According to Merrium-Websters online dictionary, the definitions are as follow:

Acceptance: an agreeing either expressly or by conduct to the act or offer of another so that a contract is concluded and the parties become legally bound.

Tolerance: a capacity to endure hardship or pain; sympathy or indulgence for beleifs or practices different from or conflicting with one's own.

I guess not the total definitions I had formulated in my own mind, but isn't that part of words? To take your experiences and be able to define them in your own interpretations of words...to some extent that is.

Anyways. Acceptance vs Tolerance: Emilys own version.

To 'accept' the ideas of others is much different than to tolerate, and for some reason neither party can understand that. To accept is to be able to say that yes, I think your idea is valid and I want to hear more.You  ACCEPT their reasoning and give it your mark of credibility.  To tolerate is to listen without feeling the need to agree and/or disagree, because in the end, everyone has their own right to their own ideas. No ones asking the other party to ACCEPT their idea as the truth, just for some TOLERANCE,  But for some reason this gets lost in translation.  Liberals are just as stubborn minded at times as conservatives are about their own ideas. Likewise, conservatives can also be shown to have more broad reaching ideas.

All I can see is both parties asking for TOLERANCE, but neither giving it. That is, the common courtesy to listen. No need to comment. But listen. Think. Let others opinions be heard as well..to some extent. I most definitely do not advocate for the shoving information down your throat method, but come on. It's the golden rule.  Don't expect tolerance without giving some. And you sure as hell shouldn't expect acceptance if you can't accept others for who they are as well. It's like the golden rule of life in general, but not so nice. Don't dish out what you can't take, and treat others the way you want to be treated.

Tolerance and Acceptance. Acceptance and Tolerance. Most people can differentiate, so why do politicians seem to think that they are exempt?