What is the “paradox of tolerance” and is it legit?
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The paradox of tolerance basically says that for a society to remain a tolerant society, it must be intolerant of intolerant views. It seems like a paradox because you’d assume in a tolerant society, *literally* anything goes, including people hosting intolerant views.
However, the paradox claims that if a tolerant society allows intolerant views, it will, eventually crumble and die because of the spread/growth of the intolerant views (which, you know, makes sense). Thus, a tolerant society must “paradoxically” be intolerant to this one specific viewpoint for it to remain a tolerant society.
Is it legit? Idk. At least, it makes sense to me. It’s really more of a rhetorical device used against bad-faith arguments when discussing liberties, free will, rights, and tolerance in society.
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