Confession: I am so fcking intolerant of intolerance.
I understand it, I sympathize with its causes, I don’t sit in judgment of those whom it infects.
I get it.
But I don’t tolerate it. I am viscerally resistant to it. I even react harshly to it, when I see evidence of it running deep in someone’s spirit.
(Sometimes a thunderclap is needed to clear the air.)
Because a tolerant society – comprised of tolerant individuals – can and should tolerate everything but one thing: intolerance itself.
Because intolerance of other people – to take an irrational, xenophobic, and persecutory stance towards your neighbors – is the beginning of bad faith engagement with society. It is the exploitable vulnerability that eventually leads to death camps.
Yes, death camps.
To tolerate everything but intolerance:
That is the paradox of civil society.
So close your eyes and ask yourself:
Who and what are you intolerant of – and why?