Category: Toleration
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Why Defend Tolerance and not Intolerance?
Jacques commented: . . . I'm reluctant to say that tolerance needs defending more than intolerance. The Muslim world is intolerant of many things that should be tolerated, such as 'paganism' and atheism. But then, the Muslim world is also rightly intolerant of all the worst things about our culture. They don't tolerate blasphemy-for-the-sake-of-blasphemy. If…
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The Danger of Appeasing the Intolerant
Should we tolerate the intolerant? Should we, in the words of Leszek Kolakowski, . . . tolerate political or religious movements which are hostile to tolerance and seek to destroy all the mechanisms which protect it, totalitarian movements which aim to impose their own despotic regime? Such movements may not be dangerous as long as…
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“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Misattributed to Voltaire, the above saying yet captures his attitude. The parroting of the saying in the wake of the terrorist attack by Muslim fanatics on Charlie Hebdo is becoming tiresome. It is high time we take a squinty-eyed look at it. I will be arguing that it does not bear up well under examination.…
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Toleration Extremism: Notes on John Stuart Mill
In the wake of the murderous rampage by Muslim terrorists at Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January, many have embraced a form of extremism according to which any and all (public) expression must be tolerated. This entry questions this extremism as we find it in John Stuart Mill. Here are two passages from Chapter…
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Joan Rivers: A Conservative Response
I was one of those who saw "Last Tango in Paris" when it was first released, in 1972. I haven't seen it since and I don't remember anything specific about it except one scene, the scene you remember too, the 'butter scene,' in which the Marlon Brando character sodomizes the Maria Schneider character. In a post…
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The New Illiberalism
I have often pointed out that there is nothing liberal about contemporary 'liberals.' Kim R. Holmes' Intolerance as Illiberalism is well worth your time. Excerpt: Hard illiberalism, however, is not the only variant. There are “soft” versions too. They often appear “liberal” and even operate inside democratic systems otherwise committed to the rule of law.…
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Am I a Raving Liberal? The Problem of Ideological Extremism
I happened across a post from a couple of years ago on a defunct blog named Throne and Altar. For some reason the post's title drew me in: Another Casualty: Maverick Philosopher Embraces Tolerance. The author, one "bonaldo," claims that Islam has turned me into "a raving liberal." The entry of mine that drew his…
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On Toleration: With a Little Help from Kolakowski
1. Toleration is the touchstone of classical liberalism, and there is no denying its value. Our doxastic predicament requires it of us. We have beliefs galore but precious little knowledge, especially as regards the large and enduring questions. Lacking knowledge, we must inquire. For that we need freedom of inquiry, and a social and political…
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A Dog Named ‘Muhammad’
There is a sleazy singer who calls herself 'Madonna.' That moniker is offensive to many. But we in the West are tolerant, perhaps excessively so, and we tolerate the singer, her name, and her antics. Muslims need to understand the premium we place on toleration if they want to live among us. A San Juan Capistrano councilman named his…
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Toleration Extremism: Notes on John Stuart Mill
Here are two passages from Chapter Two of John Stuart Mill's magnificent On Liberty (emphases added): But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it.…
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Krauthammer’s Situational Libertarianism
I have argued more than once that toleration has limits. See, for example, The Danger of Appeasing the Intolerant and other entries in the Toleration category. I am pleased to see that the astute Charles Krauthammer has argued something similar. He calls his position "situational libertarianism": Liberties should be as unlimited as possible — unless and…
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Tolerance and Assimilation
We don't have to prove to Muslims that we are tolerant; they have to prove to us that they are willing to assimilate.
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David Harsanyi
He has his head screwed on Right. See his The Tolerance Canard.
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On Religious Pluralism and Religious Tolerance
If you are an adherent of a given religion, why ought you tolerate other religions? We must tolerate other religions because we do not know which religion is true, if any is, and this would be something very important to know if it could be known. So we must inquire, and our inquiry will be aided…
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Legality and Propriety: What One Has a Right to Do is Not Always Right to Do
What do the following have in common: Flag burning, Koran burning, suspending a crucifix in urine and calling it art, building a mosque near Ground Zero, calling a black person 'nigger,' affixing a 'Fuck Your Honor Student' bumpersticker on your car? They are all offensive, but they are all legal. Flag burning. If you steal my…