Why would you believe tolerance to be a higher value than truth? But more importantly it’s critical to separate two kinds of tolerance: intellectual and interpersonal.Sadly, the two have become conflated.
Interpersonal tolerance is to be lauded. My muslim neighbors (and I mean literally the people who live next door to me) have every right to go about their lives as freely as I do, with all of the protections that the Golden Rule, our Constitution, common courtesy and our system of laws affords them.
Intellectual tolerance, on the other hand, is tantamount to saying “whatever” and failing to engage with issues or persons. It is the essence of contempt. It is surely not wise to press such distinctions in every conversation, but to fall into the habit of not making them for oneself is to fall into a swamp of half-truths and, ultimately, bald lies.
Its opposite involves distinctions and thus forms the basis for reason and truth. (I cannot tolerate you saying the light is green when it is red because that puts both of us in danger — it is untruthful, perhaps even insane. I cannot tolerate fraudulent information and expect my business to thrive or escape legal censure. I cannot tolerate the belief that the earth is flat — at least not when espoused by an airline pilot or navigator. One can think of myriad other examples that a small child could understand.)
When fears of interpersonal intolerance (e.g., we can’t say that because it might cause some people might beat up muslims!) cause us to steer clear of facts or other rational distinctions that are important to explore for other reasons, we allow fear to hold reason and open dialogue hostage. And that, I should hope, would be something we could all agree is not a good or healthy thing.
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