sudanglo:Yes Orthohawk. The preponderance of left-wingers is just another aspect in respect of which the Esperanto-speaking community is not representative of the population at large.

I could say the same thing about engineers or mathematicians not being representative of the population (they hold "liberal" views on the coolness of math ), but I wouldn't consider that a problem. People who are drawn to certain ideas are naturally going to have a tendency to be more similar to each-other and distinguishable from the population at large. Esperanto is a more liberal idea and draws more liberal-minded people to it (or repels conservatives), but this is not a problem, and I'd say it would in fact be quite odd if it were the other way around.

To leave the movement in response to criticism is hardly a proper response, and as a conservative-minded person myself I would like to see an example of this "intolerance". I find extremists on both sides equally intolerable, though, and tolerance does not extend to allowing such individuals to spout their propaganda uncontested. I have no problems with controversial topics until I see discussions descend to the point where they are hardly worthy of a YouTube comment thread. It seems that many cry "intolerance" when it is not their beliefs, but their behavior that is not being tolerated.

Wow, people don't seem to be addressing the op at all, instead they are just going off on tangents. Instead of adding my own political/religious opinions, I will instead, actually respond to the op.

(Response to op's question)
Short and sweet, do whatever you find interesting and the rest will follow. In other words, if you find Esperanto interesting then study it, regardless of the community. That's how I live my life.

(other stuff op may find useful or interesting)

Oh yeah, also studying a little Philosophy can really help you make sense out of life and help you make better decisions in the future. When I say "studying a little Philosophy" I don't simply mean reading about different Philosophers or their arguments, but rather learning how to do Philosophy, i.e. learning the basics of Logic and how to apply it to life.

I'll write some other stuff just in case you are interested in things that help me manage my anxiety problems.

(point, forcing yourself into new situations can be rewarding)
Of course, you know that you aren't alone in your social anxiety problem, I have it as well, as do many. I'm in college now, although it is difficult to be around people often, it has forced me to find ways to better cope or manage my anxiety issues. It has allowed me to meet interesting people that have similar interests, but that isn't a requirement on my part. I enjoy learning about the world from people I find interesting. I might have nothing in common with them but still find them interesting, and thus worth my time.

I wrote that last paragraph to provide further evidence that people like us, with anxiety issues, can participate in the world and enjoy life despite our anxiety problems, but often you have to take the bad with the good, such is life.

(point, Philosophy and Science seeks 'the truth' not your truth or my truth but 'the truth' which the pursuit of may help you)
In recent years I have developed a sort of stoic perspective on life which I think has helped me cope with my own issues. In fact, before I started studying Philosophy and Science I was really unstable psychologically and emotionally because I ultimately had no idea what I believed or how to distinguish beliefs from truths, which are not the same. So not only did I have no foundation to build my perspective onto I wasn't equipped to distinguish reasonable arguments from unreasonable arguments, which makes it easy for you to be persuaded into believing anything that initially sounds reasonable, which means that you will likely change beliefs all the time, which means a sort of mental chaos that will cause you unnecessary suffering.

LOL, I suppose my post wasn't very concise or coherent. I hope it helps nonetheless.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you do study philosophy and science don't get obsessed with trying to find some ultimate meaning of life or some ultimate truth, because if you do, it could drive you insane. Concentrate on what can actually be known

sudanglo:In contrast Rauxmists have given up on the purpose of Esperanto and relegated it to a similar status to that of Klingon - just a harmless eccentric hobby, for people who want to concentrate on doing their own thing with like-minded people.

No doubt some people consider it just as another harmless eccentric hobby, but that's not exactly what I think. In a way, it certainly is a bit of a harmless hobby for me, as I already knew some Romance languages and other languages that Esperanto was based on, so I knew it wouldn't be too hard to learn, but it also genuinely does allow people to communicate with a wide range of people from all over the world in a way that Klingon probably wouldn't (which is one of many reasons why I've not learnt that language). (For example, I'm currently talking to a Russian living in France and learning a programming language together with an Indian man.) So the purpose is still alive for me, I'm just sceptical of many of the claims that are made for universal, or near-universal, take-up (even if it did achieve the fina venko, I could see the language being used for bad just as much as for good, if not more so, just as all human technologies, especially rationalistic ones, throughout recent history have been co-opted by the elite for the furtherance of their own ends).

As I say, Esperanto comes out of the same kind of left-wing, or at least totalising, thought as many other 19th-century movements, so it's not surprising that such people may preponderate. But I can see how people with a similarly all-encompassing worldview from the right, e.g. market-based liberals (meliorists / techno-utopians), could very easily become attracted to the idea behind Esperanto too. I've never seen people with conservative ideas being mocked though. I might have seen criticism of certain ideas (though not even much of that tbh), but that's a different thing. (Personally, I don't think even racism or sexism or any other -ism should be censored. Because that stops the rest of the community from potentially showing people who hold those views just what's so overwhelmingly stupid about them. Unless most of the community actually did hold racist or sexist views, in which case it'd be dangerous because they'd just be reaffirmed. In my opinion people absolutely do need to have their most fundamental assumptions challenged when they're dodgy rather than just being hushed up! I don't think the policies that are in place now at Lernu are especially bad though.)

Finally, when mainstream society is so clearly &&&&ed up, I wouldn't see it as a good thing to be just another part of it. But I'm aware that that's not a mainstream view.

(And I'm happy to discuss this further if anyone wants to, but maybe we should actually make another thread now.)

captainzhang:Wow, people don't seem to be addressing the op at all, instead they are just going off on tangents. Instead of adding my own political/religious opinions, I will instead, actually respond to the op.

(Response to op's question)
Short and sweet, do whatever you find interesting and the rest will follow. In other words, if you find Esperanto interesting then study it, regardless of the community. That's how I live my life.

(other stuff op may find useful or interesting)

Oh yeah, also studying a little Philosophy can really help you make sense out of life and help you make better decisions in the future. When I say "studying a little Philosophy" I don't simply mean reading about different Philosophers or their arguments, but rather learning how to do Philosophy, i.e. learning the basics of Logic and how to apply it to life.
...
(point, Philosophy and Science seeks 'the truth' not your truth or my truth but 'the truth' which the pursuit of may help you)
In recent years I have developed a sort of stoic perspective on life which I think has helped me cope with my own issues...

I would say that the tangents aren't entirely unrelated to the question at hand, i.e. "Is the Esperanto community really accepting of people who are different?". I think your assertion is very warranted, however. I (as well as several other culpable tangent-followers) did indeed respond to the OP initially, but then some decided to pull in other issues instead of creating new (or returning to old) threads.

On that note, I find it interesting how recently I've seen two other Esperantist who have studied the Stoics (and even more students of philosophy in general). I myself suggested studying philosophy, the Stoics specifically, and I even included my favourite and relevant quote from Epictetus (on page 5 now, I believe)

I also forgot to mention the book "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy", which I highly recommend to anyone, and to the OP especially. It foregoes the more rigid formal approach to philosophy, and adopts the more practical approach used by the Stoics themselves. This is one of the few books that I have read through twice.

I understand but it's not umcommon for people from all walks of life to insert their bias into discussions and try to derail them. I don't think what he experiences on this site is good enough evidence to conclude that this is characteristic of the Esperanto community specifically and not just characteristic of humans or any sort of group dymanics in general. Simply put, as I'm sure other people have stated, you are going to run into annoying and even mean people no matter where you go, learning to tolerate/ignore annoying people is a prerequisite to being considered a mature/wise person.

erinja:
Esperanto has a very "celebrate our differences, learn from each other, diversity is great, it's ok if you're different than others" type of culture. To put it mildly, that is not the vibe I get from some conservatives, and if you go around saying "different and diverse is ok but only to a point and I will tell you where that point is", then you will definitely offend some people in Esperanto.

Plus, sometimes you just have to deal with the fact that Esperanto brings lots of different people together.

That is exactly what I do; however, when some rube turns around and out of the blue, for no reason other than I have mentioned that I am religious or conservative or something else they happen to hate, it turns into a Jekyl and Hyde situation. I know most E-ists are "live and let live types" and I am as well......until someone starts verbally abusing me just because my political and/or religious philosophy happens to be something they hate. Then it's gloves off and watch out. "Just be nice, and things'll be OK" works both ways.

orthohawk:most E-ists are "live and let live types" and I am as well......until someone starts verbally abusing me just because my political and/or religious philosophy happens to be something they hate. Then it's gloves off and watch out. "Just be nice, and things'll be OK" works both ways.

These things feed on themselves and turn acrimonious if you answer with gloves off to someone else's rudeness. This is one of our biggest problems on the lernu forums. A starts verbally abusing B; B responds rudely, 'gloves off', and it turns into a flame war. A and B are both breaking lernu's rules, and they both risk getting their messages deleted and possibly their accounts. Then they both complain to me with "but the other one started it", or "but the other one has insulted me many times on another thread before I said anything here", etc. Don't take off the gloves just because someone else was rude first. Report the message.

Write an angry reply in another window and then delete it if that helps. Or give yourself a waiting period before writing your angry reply, maybe 24 hours. That helps as well.

Plus, sometimes you just have to deal with the fact that Esperanto brings lots of different people together.

Too true!

You know the old joke. A vegetarian astrologer, a lesbian nudist, and a marxist with aspergers syndrome go into a pub - it's a meeting of the local Esperanto club.

Now if the typical Esperantist was one of the beautiful people, full of charisma and likely to inspire others to follow his/her lead, I wouldn't complain about there being a typical Esperantist.

sudanglo:Now if the typical Esperantist was one of the beautiful people, full of charisma and likely to inspire others to follow his/her lead, I wouldn't complain about there being a typical Esperantist.

My wife always made fun of the Esperantists as of below-average beauty/appearance. Until I showed her a picture of Klingon speakers' convention.

Esperanto is like all groups of people in most ways. One of the most beautiful people I know, my "Esperanto mother", who is 99 years old now and will be 100 in March, has been my inspiration and my guiding star. At her age, she is now interested in homaranismo and after learning more about it, I am too. She learned about E after the Nazi reign in Germany, where she was living. It was like a door opening for her to meet foreigners and go to foreign countries and be accepted. She helped at Bona Espero three different times, she visited Japan and China and Egypt and the USA and almost all of the countries in Europe. And she helped me as a foreign student in Germany and countless others - selflessly and with the kind of love that Esperanto represents for me. Her name: Elfriede Kruse. If you have ever met her, you will understand what I mean. And is she strange? No more than most of us. She worked for the German Railroad all of her life - not in academia. Esperanto is her only second language but she speaks it with an elegance and gentleness that melts your heart. If you really want to know a role model in Esperanto, she is it.