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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Tolerance paradox
Unfortunately, the solution to the paradox boils down to "Might Makes Right". The bounds of tolerance aren't set by a consensus, but by whomever has the Power to Yeet.
And while this game seems satisfying early on (Yeet the Nazis! Yeet the Tankies! Yeet the Radical Centrists!) you do get into a cycle of purity where you're yeeting anyone who questions whether the last guy who got yeeted deserved it.
That leaves us with the age-old Martin Niemöller verse:
"And then they came to Yeet me - and there was no one left to Yeet back on my behalf".
What is the appropriate degree of tolerance? How do you prevent it from expanding to include people who would dissolve the institution? How do you prevent it from collapsing into a state of cult-like obedience to authority? It's a balancing act and one that the individuals with the power to silence fringe communities rarely have an interest in performing.
I believe the answer lies in bureaucracy.
You're allowed to be intolerant but you gotta fill out just a bunch of paperwork to do so. And if someone to pay a fee, fill in several forms, submit to an ID chrck and wait 6 weeks just to get a literal N word pass, then yeet.
Laws, courts, and a strong democracy my dude.
The Intolerance Paradox posits the risk that these institutions are infiltrated by intolerant agents.
Florida has laws, courts, and an electoral system. None of those seem to be holding the fascists back. Many are being employed by fascists to legitimize their violence.
If the USA had better laws, the news media would not be free from getting sued or fined for spreading lies. If the USA has a stronger democracy, where we didn't have to deal with this elector nonsense, then we'd have federal laws that prevent fascists from getting into power.
We don't/didn't have that, so now we get to hope that the fascists don't win.
The only way we get out of this is by charging some of these fascists with treason and putting them in jail.
I'm curious what your take is on using governmental violence against fascists? For example, throwing them in jail.
A country riddled with fascists isn't going to pass laws against themselves. You (paradoxically) need to get rid of the fascists first, before you get rid of the fascist policy.
That's why we couldn't have pass the civil rights amendments until after secession. And why we didn't pass the Equal Rights (for women) amendment at all.
Unfortunately, we've embraced fascism in both parties as the donor elites have tacked rightward. Harris striking common cause with the Cheneys might as well be a stake through the heart of American liberalism.
Ok, so you're accepting defeat?
Can't plan for victory if you don't admit defeat.
What the heck does that mean? You do your best, every step of the way. If you don't have a democracy, do a revolution. If the people don't know how badly they're getting screwed, educate them. Being doomer is not useful. Keep trying to improve the situation.
Society needs a yeeting tree.
The Yeeting Tree by Shel Silverstein. It would have had a better lesson.