You're Not More Tolerant Than Anybody Else

    Over the years, I've found myself grinding my teeth at all sorts of silliness that people believe to be true. One of those things that has been bothering me for about the last 18 months is the false concept that some people are more tolerant than others.

    The word tolerate can be used in a few ways. 

    First. Things can coexist. Some things simply don't bother each other. I'm not sure if this is tolerance or mutual ignoring. But, for example, cattle and horses can often be pastured together.

    Second, the word tolerance can be used to describe something you just put up with, even if it isn't pleasant. I have a greater tolerance for summer heat than winter snow.

    Third, in engineering or manufacturing, tolerance is a term to describe a machine part within specifications. The engine was built to tight tolerances of 0.005 for efficiency.

    There are probably a couple of uses I've missed. But you get the idea.

    There is also a way that the word tolerance is used, that is, in my mind, inappropriate. Let me explain what I mean.  That is the moral usage. The phrase, "I'm more tolerant than you!" is verbially thrown about as a backhanded insult. The direct insult is, "You're a narrow-minded bigot! I'm more tolerant than you!" In most cases, the person casting the insult is attempting to occupy some moral high ground. But here's the thing. Being morally, emotionally, or intellectually tolerant of an issue strongly implies an intolerance of the antithetical position being tolerated. It is impossible to tolerate both sides of many issues. You cannot both like and dislike collard greens. Thus, being tolerant of position "A" means that the tolerator cannot tolerate its antipode, position "B." Often, one cannot even engage in Hegelian thesis-antithesis-synthesis logic because there is no way to synthesize the viewpoints. So, to "tolerate" position "A" means being intolerant of position "B".  It's statistics.  Toleration, in this sense, is a fixed-pie calculation that adds up to 100%. That's just the way it works. 

    Oftentimes, in my experience, what people mean when they say "I'm just more tolerant than you" has nothing to do with toleration. Because the people making such claims generally are staking a moral, rather than statistical, claim to the less popular, widely believed, or conventional position. If I tolerate a position that only 45% of other people do, that means people holding the other position are, technically, more tolerant than I am.  I should not claim to be more tolerant than others. The fact that a majority holds a different opinion doesn't make them right; it just makes them, statistically speaking, more tolerant than me. 

Until Next Time

Fai Mao