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by tomohawk
2172 days ago
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Tolerance traditionally means tolerating people. This has been shifted (some would say cynically) to mean tolerating ideas. The traditional meaning allows you to have a society. You can live next to someone who you disagree with. The new meaning is a profoundly negative one. It means that if you are tolerant, then there is something wrong with you, because you are tolerating bad ideas. A society that embraces the second definition doesn't seem like it will last very long. The traditional definition allows conversations to take place. It gives people space to grow and change their minds. It puts people as more important than ideals. The new definition makes ideals more important than people. It requires cancelling people if they believe the "wrong" things, or at least unfashionable things. |
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Because practically, aren't ideas tied to people? I don't think you can have an idea survive without people keeping it alive. So how do you express intolerance for "bad" ideas without letting that expression bleed into an intolerance for the people propagating the "bad" idea?