All of us here wants to build a tolerant society where our differences and diversity is a source of strength not conflict. Humanity’s greatest moments are when people of different backgrounds come together, overcome their differences and achieve great things together. In this world, we must accept that there will be people who think and believe different things than us, that’s just humanity, but what do we do when we want to be tolerant, but there are people expressing viewpoints that are hateful and intolerant? Surely our first instinct as tolerant people is to leave them be and hope that by setting a good example they’ll be inspired to leave behind their misguided ways, but this is rarely the case.
The paradox of tolerance, put forth by the philosopher Karl Popper, suggests that if a society is tolerant without limit, it’s ability to be tolerant can be manipulated, seized and eventually destroyed by the intolerant. The paradox part comes in because in order to maintain a tolerant society, we must be firmly intolerant of intolerance.
Imagine a society where all beliefs and schools of thoughts are freely taught and accepted, even the most heinous, bigoted and hateful ones, such as neo-nazis, white supremacists, terrorist groups, and religious extremists. These groups would use this lack of restriction to further spread their ideas throughout our freely tolerant society and recruit new members, gaining power and eventually forcefully taking over leadership positions and turning it into a dictatorship where tolerant and outspoken people are eradicated.
In the world we live in today, whenever we try to quell intolerance, they always hide behind the notion of free speech, that their beliefs should be respected just like any other. But they’re not arguing in good faith when they say this. Because they’re not playing by our rules, we shouldn’t expect them to be fair. Any weakness we show or concession we give them, they’ll take advantage of, give them one step and they’ll take three. We cannot tolerate a worldview that is fundamentally incompatible with ours.
This has already happened many times in history, I think the most hard hitting and recognizable example is the beginning of World War 2. Where Britain allowed Hitler’s Germany to expand their territory by a little bit, letting him do what he wanted, hoping that it would satisfy them and avoid further escalation. Hitler took this concession as a sign of weakness, and quickly broke the agreement, invading more countries and starting World War 2, where countless millions of lives were lost. We have to learn from the past, stand united against hatred, and never let them destroy what we’ve worked so hard to build.
