by Mike Bendzela

The idea that “the only intolerable thing is intolerance” wears its contradiction on its sleeve. It also violates the Golden Rule–to behave toward others as you would have them behave toward you. We all have limits to our tolerance–call them “intolerances”–and it’s not too much to ask others to tolerate them, within reason. Let them hold the backs of their hands against their foreheads and declaim their forbearance of poor, weak us. Like they’ve never been a pain in someone else’s ass.
It’s unfortunate we have to use the word “tolerance” to express the capacity to interact with various kinds of people. It has a whiff of victimhood about it, as if one were asking to be admired for one’s stamina and not for one’s humanity. “Tolerance” seems as if it were a physical capacity to withstand repugnant stimuli: One has high or low levels of “tolerance” for cigarette smoke, alcohol, pollen, toxins, sunlight, and cats. So, the same goes for homosexuals, Jews, and Republicans? “Tolerance” doesn’t adequately express that the issue is one’s comportment, not one’s fortitude, when it comes to facing others who differ from oneself.
Here’s Karl Popper on the Paradox of Tolerance, as served up by Wikipedia:
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
For this to be graspable, we need a demonstration of just what the intolerance of intolerance would look like in everyday life. Read more »