What to Expect

Writing in the shadow of fascism in 1945, Karl Popper gave us what he called the paradox of tolerance — the unsettling observation that a society of unlimited tolerance must eventually be prepared to be intolerant of intolerance itself, or it will be destroyed by those who hold no tolerance at all.

“Must we tolerate intolerance?” is a question philosophers have wrestled with for centuries, that lawmakers have tried to codify, that artists have tried to capture, and that ordinary people face — sometimes quietly, sometimes explosively — in their homes, their communities, and on social media, every single day.

We like to think the answer is obvious when it's someone else's problem. A neo-Nazi. A troll. A stranger online. But the closer it gets to home, the messier it becomes. The person with the bad take is also someone's friend. Someone who shows up every week. Someone who genuinely doesn't think they've done anything wrong.

So what do we do? Engage and risk legitimizing it? Shut it down and risk becoming the thought police? Walk away and let someone else deal with it?