The Intolerance of Tolerance

Mar 16, 2020

What does it mean to be tolerant? The dictionary defines tolerance as respect for opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from your own. But in our polarized cultural climate, it has come to mean something else entirely. Greg Koukl, president of Stand to Reason and author of Tactics, sorts it all out.

Study Guide

The classic definition of “tolerance” means to recognize and respect others’ beliefs and practices without sharing them.: Tolerance is defined by the Oxford dictionary as "the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behavior that one dislikes or disagrees with."
View source; “This essential element of tolerance — disagreement — has been completely lost in the modern distortion of the concept,” Stand to Reason President Greg Koukl contends. “Nowadays, if you think someone is wrong, you're called intolerant. This presents a curious problem. One must first think another is wrong in order to exercise tolerance toward him, yet doing so brings the accusation of intolerance. It's a ‘Catch-22.’ According to this approach, true tolerance is impossible.”
View source; Related reading: “Tolerance, The Key To Liberty” – Fred Bauer, National Review
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The left says all behaviors and ideas have equal value, but they don’t act that way.: Tolerance has become a one-way street for the left. According to the progressive left, if you differ with them on culturally sensitive issues—like sexual orientation or religious beliefs—you’re labeled “intolerant” no matter how you treat those with whom you disagree.
View source; When Harry Potter novelist J. K. Rowling stated publicly that sex differences are real she was branded as “transphobic” by the left.
View source; When legendary tennis star and feminist Martina Navratilova said it was unfair to women to have to compete against trans-athletes — biological males who identify as females — she faced fierce backlash from the left.
View source; Related video: “So, You Think You’re Tolerant?” – Dave Rubin
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To be “tolerant” today simply means you agree with politically-correct—that is, left-wing—positions.: Liberals once believed in real tolerance, but many who now describe themselves as “liberal” do not anymore. The left is no longer satisfied with disagreeing with opposing views; instead, leftist activists increasingly seek to shut them down.
View source; “Tolerant” Antifa “protesters” required $600,000 on security spending at UC Berkeley when mainstream conservative Ben Shapiro showed up for a talk.
View source; When libertarian political scientist Charles Murray spoke at Middlebury College, leftist students attacked the professor who invited him, a liberal who intended to challenge his ideas.
View source; In another example of left-wing intolerance, the Chicago Dyke March stopped lesbian participants from marching with the Star of David.
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Tolerance no longer means treating people with civility and respect even when we disagree with them—it means not disagreeing with the left.: "Tolerance of persons, what might be called ‘civility,’ can be equated with the word ‘respect,’” Greg Koukl explains. “This is the classical definition of tolerance: the freedom to express one's ideas without fear of reprisal. We respect those who hold different beliefs than our own by treating them courteously and allowing their views a place in the public discourse. We may strongly disagree with their ideas and vigorously contend against them in the public square, but we still show respect for the persons in spite of the differences.”
View source; The principle of respecting people with whom we disagree has been largely thrown out by the left, which now responds to different views on culturally sensitive issues—like sexual orientation or religious beliefs— by smearing those who hold them as “intolerant.”
View source; Related video: “Does Free Speech Offend You?” – Greg Lukianoff
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In the name of “diversity” and “tolerance,” the Left enforces intellectual conformity by censoring opposing views and policing speech.: Companies like Google use words like “diversity” and “inclusion” while censoring opinions they don’t like.
View source; While college campuses promote diversity in race and gender, free speech-censoring actions by largely progressive administrations, faculty and students stifle intellectual diversity.
View source; Politically motivated control of language is detrimental to seeking and expressing the truth. This sort of agenda-driven policing of language can be seen in the Associated Press banning politically charged terms, like “illegal immigrant” and “Islamic terrorist.”
View source; No one understand the power of words better than the left, which twists old words and invents new ones to promote a political and ideological agenda.
View source; Related video: “Control the Words, Control the Culture” – Michael Knowles
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Tolerance doesn’t require we treat all ideas as equally valuable. True tolerance means we treat all people as equally valuable.: Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft famously stated, “Be egalitarian regarding persons. Be elitist regarding ideas.” In other words, treat some ideas as better than other ideas. Why? Because they are. Some are good; some are bad. Some are smart; some are dumb. Some are dangerous.
View source; Tolerance of people must be distinguished from tolerance of ideas. “Tolerance of persons requires that each person's views get a courteous hearing, not that all views have equal worth, merit, or truth,” Greg Koukl writes. “The view that no person's ideas are any better or truer than another's is irrational and absurd. To argue that some views are false, immoral, or just plain silly does not violate any meaningful standard of tolerance.”
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Many who throw around the word “tolerance” these days are simply unwilling to be challenged by other views.: “Most of what passes for tolerance today is intellectual cowardice, a fear of intelligent engagement,” writes Greg Koukl. “Those who brandish the word ‘intolerant’ are unwilling to be challenged by other views, to grapple with contrary opinions, or even to consider them. It’s easier to hurl an insult—'you intolerant bigot’—than to confront the idea and either refute it or be changed by it.”
View source; Related reading: “The Intolerance of Tolerance” – Greg Koukl
View source; Related video: “So, You Think You’re Tolerant?” – Dave Rubin
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Do you know what the word “tolerance” means? If you do, I salute you, because I have no idea anymore. I did… once. Everybody did… once. But now, thanks to the left, the word is totally up for grabs. Actually, it’s worse than that. Tolerance now means the opposite of what it once meant. Tolerance now means intolerance, and intolerance now means tolerance.

Confusing—yeah, I know—but stay with me. There’s a big pay-off at the end. It’s called “clarity.”

To be “tolerant” today simply means you agree with politically-correct—that is, left-wing—positions. That’s all it means.

This is easy to show: Name one position that differs from the left that they don’t label intolerant.

When you differ with the left on any subject—and I mean any—the people who claim to be tolerant don’t attack your position; they attack you. They label you, as Dennis Prager puts it, “SIXHIRB”—sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, bigoted. And if that fails, there’s always the ever-popular “hater.”

This is obviously not tolerance. This is blatant intolerance. Your accusers are guilty of doing exactly the same thing they’re accusing you of doing.

Here’s what they’re missing: In order to be genuinely tolerant of someone, you first have to disagree with them, since you don’t tolerate people you agree with. The classic definition of “tolerance” means to recognize and respect others’ beliefs and practices without sharing them.

Notice the element of disagreement is key to tolerance. Without it, true tolerance is not possible. This is critical. We don’t “tolerate” people we agree with—we’re on the same side! We only “tolerate” people we differ with, yet still choose to treat decently and with respect.

This vital ingredient of real tolerance is completely missing in the politically correct version. Nowadays, if you differ with others on culturally sensitive issues—like sexual orientation or religious beliefs—you’re labeled intolerant no matter how you treat them.

The left says all behaviors and ideas have equal value—that no behavior or idea is any better than any other. They don’t act that way. Tolerance is a one-way street for the left.

Openly declare that sex differences are real, as Harry Potter novelist J. K. Rowling did, and see what happens. You’ll be called “transphobic” by the left. The same thing happened to legendary tennis star and feminist Martina Navratilova, when she said it was unfair to women to have to compete against trans-athletes—that is, athletes who say they identify as female, but are biologically male. But I thought, according to the left, all ideas have equal value. So why are J.K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova suddenly called haters? Because the left doesn’t believe its own rhetoric.

What the left has done is cleverly redefine tolerance to mean “agreement with leftist views.” Tolerance no longer means treating people with civility and respect even when we disagree with them. It means not disagreeing with them—that is, the left. That’s how, in the name of tolerance, the left shuts down all disagreement. It defines any contradiction of leftist views as intolerant.

But not only is disagreement not intolerant, it’s morally and logically essential. Think about it. All ideas, all behaviors are not equally valid. Some are better. Some are worse. And discussion and disagreement and debate are how we sort out the good from the bad. Civilization depends on it.

The abolitionist movement in America believed its arguments were better than pro-slavery arguments. They were. Anti-communists believed freedom was better than communism. It is. Tolerance doesn’t require we treat all ideas as equally valuable. No—true tolerance means we treat all people as equally valuable, with kindness and with civility and with the freedom to express their ideas even when we disagree with them. That is real tolerance.

Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft has a good way of putting it. He says be egalitarian about people. That is, treat all people with equal dignity and respect—regardless of their views. But, he says, be elitist about ideas. In other words, treat some ideas as better than other ideas. Why? Because they are.

Some are good; some are bad. Some are smart; some are dumb. Some are dangerous. And we ought to be able to have the liberty to figure out which is which in our discussions without being called names, and certainly without fearing we’ll lose our jobs—or our careers.

True tolerance applies to how we treat people we disagree with, not how we treat ideas we disagree with. All people have equal value; all points of view do not.

I’m Greg Koukl, president of Stand to Reason, for Prager University.

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