The Paradox of Tolerance

Poulgorm

It's a difficult one. The Catholic Church did not approve of contraception - so the state banned it. You were not suppose to do it, whether you were a practicing Catholic or not, or some other religion or none.

Clearly, that was intolerant. I don't think anybody could argue otherwise.

So, let's say you have a community here whose culture allows/encourages/practises female circumcision. They are good citizens otherwise, but they do not accept our values with respect to this issue. It only affects their small community - it has no effect on the majority.

But it is abhorrent to the majority. Should the majority tolerate it? It would be hard to argue that the practice should be allowed, within those minority communities.

So, the idea that communities with a different cultural outlook, their behaviour should be tolerated if it has no adverse impact on the majority, is not always the correct approach to take.

It extends to other areas too - e.g. status/treatment of women etc.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058382328/the-paradox-of-tolerance

Society ought to tolerate people having extreme views, while also actively scrutinising and challenging those views publicly. We can see in the US the issue when you allow people to express extremist views, without debate

magicbastarder

The situation in the states is complicated by the fact that their media is so partisan.

Dogsdodogsstuff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122930364#Comment_122930364

There will always be unreasonable and extreme people in the world. You aren’t going to not tolerate them out of existence, id of thought the rise of the far right and Trump muppet show would of made that clear.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122930441#Comment_122930441

Not tolerating and pushing back on hateful ideas is important, and the failure to do so is what helped Trump gain power. The expression of extremist views helps to normalize them and is one of the steps that allows fascism to flourish

Dogsdodogsstuff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122930457#Comment_122930457

All the democrats have been doing is pushing back against Trump and look where that has led. Not directly looking at why people may see fascist alternatives appealing is what helped Trump get power again and the far right accross the world.

Tolerating extreme views does not mean you support it or don’t challenge these views. I think not tolerating them simply drives the issue underground where extremism can wait until the centre inevitably f**ks up and it can rise again.

nullzero

It's a pretty difficult conversation to have when the group outlined in the OP are effectively a protected class and any criticism is immediately closed down on the grounds of being "phobic".

It's a very important conversation however and one we need to find a means of having sooner rather than later.

I like living in a society where people have freedom of expression, religion, sexuality etc, yet we're too afraid to put our heads above the parapet in case we offend people who'd like to take all of those freedoms away often by violent means.

Hodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058382328/the-paradox-of-tolerance

On the subjects of Tolerance and mutual respect this is an Interesting twitter thread that went up that is phased in a cultural relativism way regarding tolerance.

https://twitter.com/dr_duchesne/status/1865525705594765770

This is just a Jist of what that poster is talking about .

https://twitter.com/DollFishu/status/1855695929484931132

https://twitter.com/bapak7189/status/1861372748200845437

https://twitter.com/KojiKawagu18292/status/1865320421928899012

When it comes to tolerance and mutual respect I dont think any rational person could argue these kind of people and their culture are worthy of any respect.

Then when it comes to covid we all know it came from china it seems they havent learned much lessons as bats are still being served up.

https://twitter.com/aariz248/status/1864268808137171106

When covid hit around the world many people died and many countries had to to into lockdowns.

And things havent changed much in china since covid I would argue its likely not If but when further outbreaks of new disease come from china.

There might be need for conversation on Immigration policy in some countries regarding Immigrants from china.

I don't think anyone would say "We should accept their culture" about that scumminess . It's not even culture in the customs/traditions sense.

felonious_Gru

It's all about who regulates the parameters of tolerance and who defines what we must be tolerant and intolerant of

These rules are often deeply contradictory

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122919779#Comment_122919779

Science. It is everything. We are all a part of nature and a part of the Universe. We will go back to being a part of the Universe when we die. I am 44 not far off from being 45 and I do not go to mass. I was raised as Catholic but just found it a waste of space and brainwashing. When I die I have no interest in being buried. I want to become part of the Universe again. I want my ashes scattered in space. If that means they stay in a vase for 30 or 50 years odd yesrs untill it becomes affordable so one of my nieces or nephews can get them sent to space so be it.