Are lefties more tolerant? hahahahah

Thanks to the Catallaxy open forum, I found this wonderful thread on Democratic Underground. It's worth your time to have a quick flick through the comments. But don't stay too long - it gets very depressing very quickly.

The thread opens with this:

my heart is breaking. my daughter is turning into a republican
I was raised by a feminist and am a proud liberal. I have a low tolerance for republicans who buy into the right wing hypocritical bullshit. 
I have three beautiful intelligent daughters. One of them is living with a republican. I just saw her post something on facebook that made me realize I'm losing her. 
my heart is breaking. anyone else go through this. how do you deal?

How do you deal with this? FFS - your daughter is a grown woman, and she is entitled to lead her own life and to have her own opinions and to form her own attachments and friendships. Lefties always bang on about their "progressive" values - how they are more open, less conforming, and more tolerant and free-thinking than us evil conservative....but the responses on that thread reveal a mindset that is all about control of others, the closing of minds and a complete absence of tolerance towards anyone who thinks differently to them.

My parents are staunchly conservative - but one of my siblings is a complete hippy. In fact, about 25% of my cousins are complete hippies. I'm talking dreadlocks, living on communes, facial piercings and an odd fondness for Combi vans. Do the conservatives in our family shun the hippies? No. My parents got over the conversion to hippie-dom because deep down they accept that we all have the freedom to choose how we live our lives, and it is not their place to interfere. The supposedly staid, intolerant, backward looking, closed-minded conservatives are able to put aside their distaste for the hippy lifestyle because of their core belief in freedom. They don't have to like it, but they accept it.

I'm amazed at these supposedly liberal types (using the US terminology) who prattle on about diversity and tolerance and free-thinking etc, but who are completely unable to put it into practice in their own lives. It's no wonder they are so open to a big and controlling government - they thinks it's fine to control how their family members think and act (even as adults), so it's no big deal to control how everyone else acts and thinks.

Junior will be heading out into the big, wide world in a few short years. I've accepted the fact that it's highly unlikely that he will every hold down a white collar job. The professions are not for him. He'll never join the military. He doesn't even like team sports. He's heading for the arty side of things. I just hope he succeeds wildly as an artist - preferably fronting a heavy metal rock band and rooting at least 1,000 gorgeous groupies every year. He'll tread his own path and make his own decisions and experience his own mistakes. And he'll vote for whoever he damned well wants to.