Anyone who thinks the English, generally speaking, are a tolerant people, are not very smart I'm afraid.
That is not assumption, merely a statement of fact. And it all has a bearing on our tradition, Malcolm. And vice versa.

And unless you are Dragonfriend, I wasn't actually speaking to you.
The word 'bollocks' is not 'rude' either.
It's another gem of our language misconstrued down through the many years of our changing tradition. We should be proud that such progenies of our vast wealth of heritage has permeated the language so as to be incorporated into daily usage, by peoples so diversely spread across the globe, that very often common denominators such as language can give us all a certain equality and a starting point from which to develop stronger relationships and ties.
Is this not something to be proud of? Instant cognition, based on a common vocabulary?

One thing, however we especially are guilty of , and that is of being intolerant to criticism; our sense of self-assuredness and superiority instilled into our collective psyches by a lot of the very subjects that have been expounded upon in these threads.

You have proved my theory, Malcolm. I didn't particularly want to go this direction; the thread-drift was not of my making, but I'm afraid if we live in jam-jars, we don't see ourselves the way others see us.