This is a thorough once-over giving the lie to the "conservatives'" self-serving bullshit squealing that "Butbutbutbutbut if you don't tolerate my intolerance you're a hypocrite!" The short version, as put forth in the article, is this: tolerance is a peace treaty, not a suicide pact.
Put another way, it's social technology, just like laws. It allows us, in an ever-more-connected global society, to exist and function. Like a treaty it covers those, and only those, who are party to it.
This means that if you're a genocidal fucking psychopath then no, Virginia, we do not have to "tolerate" your unhinged ramblings. You are cancer in the body politic. You have gleefully ripped your human card to shreds and dropped the pieces in an incinerator, cackling like a hyena on PCP at how you have "owned the libs." You have placed yourselves outside the treaty. We are not obligated to put up with your shit.
tl;dr: if you can't behave like a civilized human being, don't be surprised when you get treated like a rabid animal. Read and be better, or don't, it's your choice, but don't bitch when you get your find-outs.
Reply to: Karl Popper said it...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pTamok on Friday April 28, @06:38AM
It's not just right wing political types that fail to understand this: it is also people with strong opinions of how other people should behave who demand 'respect' for their irrational mythologies.
I think the Golden Rule is incomplete: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.", because it allows people with irrational views about how they themselves should be treated to impose their behaviours on others.
The hard bit is determining where the line should be drawn for tolerating things. For example, the death penalty is too good for people who defile coffee with milk.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pTamok on Friday April 28, @06:38AM
Wikipedia: Paradox of tolerance [wikipedia.org]
It's not just right wing political types that fail to understand this: it is also people with strong opinions of how other people should behave who demand 'respect' for their irrational mythologies.
I think the Golden Rule is incomplete: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.", because it allows people with irrational views about how they themselves should be treated to impose their behaviours on others.
The hard bit is determining where the line should be drawn for tolerating things. For example, the death penalty is too good for people who defile coffee with milk.