this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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There is no paradox of tolerance. It's the social contract of tolerance. Break the social contract, receive the consequences.
Edit: I promise I understand the concept as a paradox as well. I chose to frame it the way I did because the paradox is solved by reframing the situation.
I don't know what your issue with the paradox of tolerance is. Even in your "solution" it is ultimately true that there is the paradox of tolerance.
The paradox is that a maximally tolerant society has to be intolerant to the intolerant.
Breaking the social contract would make you intolerant and the tolerant people who follow the social contract would have to be intolerant towards you to protect the social contract as just removing the necessity of tolerance towards the intolerant wouldn't create a deterrent as the tolerant people mostly would treat the intolerant decently as they aren't bad people and wouldn't inflict unnecessary harm. So you need to communicate to the tolerant people that they have to be intolerant towards the intolerant to protect the social contract, so the tolerant would inflict the necessary harm to the intolerant to create a deterrent.
So to maximize the effects of the social contract, the social contract would require intolerance from the tolerant.
But that's how the "contract" explanation "solves" the paradox. Nobody is inherently tolerant. I'm just tolerant towards you because our social contract ensures mutual tolerance. One "clause" of the contract is however that I don't have to be tolerant towards you if you breach the contract with anyone else. Or in other words, if I see you being intolerant, I have the right to be intolerant towards you, too. Whether I'm "obliged" to be intolerant towards you is another question, but you could construe it as another "clause" of the social contract.
The paradox is about being "obliged" to be intolerant to protect (and maximize) the tolerance.
If you don't actively act against intolerance, you allow the intolerance to exist, allowing intolerance will result in more intolerance.