The Intolerance of Tolerance | 5 Minute Video

What does it mean to be tolerant? The dictionary defines tolerance as respect for opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from your own. But in our polarized cultural climate, it has come to mean something else entirely. Greg Koukl, president of Stand to Reason and author of Tactics, sorts it all out.

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Script:

Do you know what the word “tolerance” means? If you do, I salute you, because I have no idea anymore. I did… once. Everybody did… once. But now, thanks to the left, the word is totally up for grabs. Actually, it’s worse than that. Tolerance now means the opposite of what it once meant. Tolerance now means intolerance, and intolerance now means tolerance.

Confusing—yeah, I know—but stay with me. There’s a big pay-off at the end. It’s called “clarity.”

To be “tolerant” today simply means you agree with politically-correct—that is, left-wing—positions. That’s all it means.

This is easy to show: Name one position that differs from the left that they don’t label intolerant.

When you differ with the left on any subject—and I mean any—the people who claim to be tolerant don’t attack your position; they attack you. They label you, as Dennis Prager puts it, “SIXHIRB”—sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, bigoted. And if that fails, there’s always the ever-popular “hater.”

This is obviously not tolerance. This is blatant intolerance. Your accusers are guilty of doing exactly the same thing they’re accusing you of doing.

Here’s what they’re missing: In order to be genuinely tolerant of someone, you first have to disagree with them, since you don’t tolerate people you agree with. The classic definition of “tolerance” means to recognize and respect others’ beliefs and practices without sharing them.

Notice the element of disagreement is key to tolerance. Without it, true tolerance is not possible. This is critical. We don’t “tolerate” people we agree with—we’re on the same side! We only “tolerate” people we differ with, yet still choose to treat decently and with respect.

This vital ingredient of real tolerance is completely missing in the politically correct version. Nowadays, if you differ with others on culturally sensitive issues—like sexual orientation or religious beliefs—you’re labeled intolerant no matter how you treat them.

The left says all behaviors and ideas have equal value—that no behavior or idea is any better than any other. They don’t act that way. Tolerance is a one-way street for the left.

Openly declare that sex differences are real, as Harry Potter novelist J. K. Rowling did, and see what happens. You’ll be called “transphobic” by the left. The same thing happened to legendary tennis star and feminist Martina Navratilova, when she said it was unfair to women to have to compete against trans-athletes—that is, athletes who say they identify as female, but are biologically male. But I thought, according to the left, all ideas have equal value. So why are J.K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova suddenly called haters? Because the left doesn’t believe its own rhetoric.

What the left has done is cleverly redefine tolerance to mean “agreement with leftist views.” Tolerance no longer means treating people with civility and respect even when we disagree with them. It means not disagreeing with them—that is, the left. That’s how, in the name of tolerance, the left shuts down all disagreement. It defines any contradiction of leftist views as intolerant.

But not only is disagreement not intolerant, it’s morally and logically essential. Think about it. All ideas, all behaviors are not equally valid. Some are better. Some are worse. And discussion and disagreement and debate are how we sort out the good from the bad. Civilization depends on it.

[quixoticjedi]

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." George S. Patton

[gcHK]

“Tolerance doesn’t mean you have to like it.”

—Herbert Garrison

[jamesarjuna]

Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who say that good is bad and bad is good, Those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

[jacobbaumgardner]

"The right to offend is more important than the right not to be offended."
-Rowan Atkinson

[CSifjrixhrj]

“Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” - Apostle Paul, Galatians‬ ‭4:16‬.

[ral]

South Park said it best: "Tolerate just means you put up with it. You can tolerate being stuck in traffic, or you can tolerate a crying child; it can still piss you off. If we were all ok with it, it'd be called acceptance."

[TheVideomaker]

I agree with this vid. I was once a leftist. I despised Trump and had leftist ideas. I thought the left was good and people on the right like Trump were bad. But one day, during the Syrian “refugee” crisis, I said we should have closed borders and we should deport these “refugees” who has been causing crime. The left starting attacking me with all the worst names from the book. I’m also non-white too so once they found out I was, I was called even way worse names. These people who claim to help minorities are attacking minorities if they disagree with them. Mind you, most of these leftists are white. Long story short, I’m now a centrist many years later. Registered Republican (might change if Republicans do dumb shit like the left) and voting Trump this year. Trump 2020

[strafe]

“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”
― G. K. Chesterton

[HuntingTarg]

I like to say:
'The best defense of the guilty is to accuse the innocent.'

[sharkdentures]

"TOLERATE! Tolerate doesn't mean you embrace and approve of something!
You TOLERATE a crying child on a plane." - Mr Garrison <South Park>

[Steveski]

Leftists: “Feed the crocodile in hopes that you’ll be the last one that he eats.”

[Rockhound]

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest!"-Thomas Paine

[pricture]

_"With all the pious talk about “tolerance” in the media and in academia, there is virtually none for those who challenge the dogmas of political correctness in most of our colleges and universities."_ - Thomas Sowell

[Antipodean]

"Political correctness is America's newest form of intolerance, and it's especially pernicious because it comes disguised as tolerance" George Carlin

[TheHeavysilver]

"In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." The paradox of tolerance is an important concept for thinking about which boundaries can or should be set.

[LadyCathryn]

When I was involved with the LGBT community, I was ostracized because of being a conservative both politically and theologically. My views were not welcome. This was just a decade ago.

[FLABrowncoat]

Suggest we future-proof "SIXHIRB" by adding a "+" on the end.

[lapamful]

We're so tolerant everyone that disagrees with us needs to go to the gulag.

[danielkottra]

This is the best PragerU video. (I watched all the 5 mins and many more). It contains the essence of all the others. This half minute is the creme de la creme of all PragerU messages: “In order to be genuinely tolerant of someone, you first have to disagree with them, since you don’t tolerate people you agree with. The classic definition of “tolerance” means to recognize and respect others’ beliefs and practices without sharing them. Notice the element of disagreement is key to tolerance. Without it, true tolerance is not possible. This is critical. We don’t “tolerate” people we agree with—we’re on the same side! We only tolerate people we differ with, yet still choose to treat decently and with respect.”

[charlesferdinand]

I'm a Mexican living in Mexico and I can confirm that all the instances of discrimination, aggressions or racism I've experienced when visiting the United States have always come from Leftie Liberals, the vast majority of whom were young rich Whites (and only when they've been in big groups, when they're alone or when they face resistance from their targets they kinda shut up, and from what I've seen they're prone to physical violence to those they disagree with but even then they only do so in big groups and they attack you and then run); Right-leaning Conservatives on the other hand have always been friendly, respectful, open to dialogue, reasonable, polite, honest and welcoming of dissent.