Paradox of Tolerance
The paradox of tolerance is the idea that a society that is entirely tolerant of all things will also be tolerant of intolerance. The issue with this is if the society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. A thought experiment for this would be to think: Is a criminal simply someone who is mentally ill? Were they born with an enlarged part of the brain which gave them an overbearing propensity to break the law?
It is paradoxical in the idea that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must retain the right to be intolerant of intolerance. To show the extent of your own tolerance, think of where you draw a line, what do you think of is a crime?
In the Western European democracies, the speech of racists, Communists, Fascists, and Nazis has been successfully outlawed for this very reason. In the United States, by contrast, the first amendment right to freedom of speech has been interpreted to encompass extremist speech. The US is either overestimating the human capacity for rationality or underestimates the harms that speech can cause.[1]
References
- ↑ Rosenfeld, M., & Bollinger, L. C. (1987). ''Extremist Speech and the Paradox of Tolerance. Harvard Law Review, 100(6), 1457.'' doi:10.2307/1341168