Intolerating Intolerance
If you do not tolerate intolerant people, does that make you an intolerant person?
Homologously, in a societal context —
Would a tolerant society become intolerant when it doesn’t tolerate intolerance?
To remain a tolerant society, we have to be intolerant towards intolerance. But, where exactly do we draw a line to intolerance? If we keep intolerating everything against what “we” perceive wrong, it’d be ironical to call ourselves a part of a tolerant society.
A few more questions to think about: What exactly makes these intolerant people, intolerant? Do they condemn every action of yours or just some of them? Mainly, is intolerance subjective or absolute? Are there some aspects of life which are universally condemned and should never be tolerated? If yes, what are they? How do we know if we are facing one?
Karl Popper takes up this crucial topic, Paradox of Tolerance, in his The Open Society and Its Enemies.
In Popper’s words —
… Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
Where Exactly Do We Draw The Line
Anything in excess is never good. Does this mean we suppress anything that we feel is a threat to our society? No, we shouldn’t do that. We should, however, counter menacing ideas through reasonable dialogue and debate.
The way we ponder on some questions make or break our societies. Occasionally, we should be ready to think, reason and debate on these questions to remember what we stand for —
How much freedom is considered good enough in a tolerant nation? Does such a nation be considered tolerant if and only if it provides ALL freedoms bounded by the necessary laws?
This brings us to Freedom of Speech. A common misconception — Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean you can speak whatever you want and face no consequences. Freedom of Speech gives you the right to speak and put forward your opinions — basically saying everyone has an equal right to present their thoughts on things concerning themselves and the nation.
This very freedom to present ideas comes with various troubles. One such trouble is the spread of fake news. With the recent advent in technology, in societies where Freedom of Speech is respected — where everyone has an absolute right to speak their mind, fake news spreads like a wildfire. It is not that we didn’t have fake news before — it is just that the internet makes it effortless. What used to be a neighbourhood gossip, can now circulate all across the world.
Can we stop the spread of fake news? No. The very same media which broadcasts our daily news are used for spreading fake news. We want to stop fake news? We need to stop broadcasting news as a whole.
A couple of years ago, we were glad that we could at the very least trust our eyes — what we see is what we believe. Technology caught up with us here too with the neoteric rise of deepfakes.
One way to tackle the spread of fake news and deep fakes is censoring the internet. However, that is not something most nations can do freely without facing flak. And they no longer are tolerant in any measure.
So how do we go around this issue? Since we can’t stop fakes moving around, we need to bring change at the receiving end — in ourselves. We need to critically examine every single piece of information we get — searching for them on the internet, confirming the news from various sources, etc. This is tiring work, but the kind of chaos we are in right now, it is absolutely necessary.
What happens when we think critically? We become tolerant. We listen. We accept various ideas. Most predominantly, we form our own opinions.
We need time to think, reason and articulate our opinions. We can’t reasonably expect everyone in our society to do it. So, what about the damage done due to hate speeches or deep fakes during the time we take to break them down as fakes? What about the damage done due to hate speech? Or due to a fake video circulating the internet? They are likely to bring chaos by the time they are broken down completely as fakes.
How do we minimise this damage? By educating the citizens of the country. But when there is so much to gain from all these, I do not see politicians pushing towards that.
So it is left to us. A common man. We need to ensure every one of us — you, me, the grandma down the street are educated and updated about these tools.
What does all this achieve? It makes our society stay tolerant. It makes the world a better place for future generations.
