For some time, I’m puzzled by the intolerance of the Dutch Left. In America, this topic has already been covered since 2017 (eg, Heritage, Odyssey, Politico). The Dutch left-wing response to the recent election victory of a right-wing nationalist was full of (extreme) intolerance (eg, Dutch News, NL-Times). Apparently, the “tolerant” Left fights alleged intolerance with intolerance.
Much to my surprise, this phenomenon is known since 1945 as the Paradox of tolerance. It was developed by the Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper (1902-1994), “generally regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers of science“.
Wiki: “The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant.”
Although this concept seems simple and valid, the problem lies in defining the scope and depth of tolerance and intolerance. Is an individual’s constitutional right of free expression, movement, religion and speech absolute or relative?? If relative, when do these rights become relative??
Also see my 2018 blogs:
- The paradox of limiting free speech to defend free speech
- You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want (Aeon)
- I’m entitled to my own opinion, am I??
Authoritarian regimes are intolerant of dissent opinions, which they often deem subversive and (thus) illegal. Hence, the word dissident. It also seems that intolerance of dissent opinions moves societies towards authoritarianism (eg, China, Russia, Turkey).
The growing intolerance in Western countries of other people’s opinions is worrisome in that light. One group is trying to silence another group by arguing that their opinions should not be tolerated. Often, the mere reason is that the other group has dissent opinions. Nevertheless, that first group deems itself as tolerant, albeit (only) towards their like-minded peers.
My personal view is that you cannot learn from people who have similar opinions. You can only learn from people who have different opinions. This is called open-mindedness; its opposite is closed-mindedness. I call this phenomenon the arrogance of the Left (and/or globalists) versus the ignorance of the Right (and/or nationalists). See my related blogs.
Learning provides the universal path towards (i) an Awakening from the downside of human Beliefs, and to (ii) Wisdom. My grandfather used to say: “As long as they talk, they don’t fight”. His saying should have been a proverb but – weirdly enough – is not.
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (1998) by Manic Street Preachers
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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