E26: The Paradox of Tolerance

This week we’re FINALLY getting to the crux of the conversation: The Tolerance Paradox.  We wanted to jump right into it last week but we realized that we had some foundation work to do on the concept of tolerance itself, so we spent some time defining what we mean when we talk about tolerance, and why (as a collective, and especially Americans) even value it.  This included some pretty… wonky philosophy about the nature of human discourse and what drives it. You may recall the phrases “classical” and “fortress” being mentioned.  

Then, because so much of our context around tolerance comes down to what people say, AND because of the perception that the Constitution gives us the right to say whatever we want to, we also spent some time breaking down what counts as speech under the Constitution - as defined the the First Amendment and SCOTUS, noting what kinds of speech and expression are and aren’t actually protected under Federal Law. 

So now we’ve given you all the background we think is necessary, and we’re ready to solve this thing.Yes? No. The answer is no. But we are definitely ready to have an intelligent conversation about these ideas, and hopefully help us all come to a place of greater understanding. Because that is always the goal of these episodes. 

 

Shownotes are here: https://firesidebreakdowns.podbean.com/p/shownotes-episode-26-the-paradox-of-tolerance/

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