Some thoughts on Alt-right Trolling.

[JHan]

11. In this thread, Salviati reminded me of an essay that touches on that:

https://extranewsfeed.com/tolerance-is-not-a-moral-precept-1af7007d6376
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211115406

"Tolerance is not a moral precept

The title of this essay should disturb you. We have been brought up to believe that tolerating other people is one of the things you do if you’re a nice person — whether we learned this in kindergarten or from Biblical maxims like “love your neighbor as yourself” and “do unto others.”

But if you have ever tried to live your life this way, you will have seen it fail: “Why won’t you tolerate my intolerance?” This comes in all sorts of forms: accepting a person’s actively antisocial behavior because it’s just part of being an accepting group of friends; being told that prejudice against Nazis is the same as prejudice against Black people; watching people try to give “equal time” to a religious (or irreligious) group whose guiding principle is that everyone must join them or else.

Every one of these examples should raise your suspicions that something isn’t right; that tolerance be damned, one of these things is not like the other. But if you were raised with an intense version of “tolerance is a moral requirement,” then you may feel that this is a thought you should fight off.

It isn’t. "

The author uses the analogy of peace agreements ...

Tolerance is not a moral absolute; it is a peace treaty. Tolerance is a social norm because it allows different people to live side-by-side without being at each other’s throats. It means that we accept that people may be different from us, in their customs, in their behavior, in their dress, in their sex lives, and that if this doesn’t directly affect our lives, it is none of our business. But the model of a peace treaty differs from the model of a moral precept in one simple way: the protection of a peace treaty only extends to those willing to abide by its terms. It is an agreement to live in peace, not an agreement to be peaceful no matter the conduct of others. A peace treaty is not a suicide pact.

The tension in liberal societies is while we want to be open to different ideas and freedom of expression, if anti-liberal ideas emerge and dominate, the stability of a democracy is put at risk. It's as though Liberalism doesn't have enough T-cells ( borrowing David brin's t-cell metaphor for a moment), to prevent attacks from within. "T-cells" can take the form of legislation which protects citizens from discrimination, theocratic rule or fascism: The Civil Rights Act, Laïcité in France and Volksverhetzung in Germany are examples of this. However the rise of neo-fascism in western democracies shows how justice delicately hangs in the balance: if bad ideas emerge and dominate, progress is easily lost.