The philosopher Karl Popper published what came to be known as the Paradox of Tolerance in his book "The Open Society and Its Enemies" in 1945.
It dealt with the question of how a society that promotes tolerance is to deal with those who are intolerant.
A number of memes were made based on Popper's concept of the Paradox of Tolerance.
In 2017, Yonatan Zunger published his essay, "Tolerance is not a moral precept" in which he said:
"Tolerance is not a moral absolute; it is a peace treaty.
...
[And] the model of a peace treaty differs from the model of a moral precept in one simple way:
the protection of a peace treaty only extends to those willing to abide by its terms.
It is an agreement to live in peace,
not an agreement to be peaceful no matter the conduct of others."
~Yonatan Zunger
https://extranewsfeed.com/tolerance-is-not-a-moral-precept-1af7007d6376
When discussing Zunger's article (tolerance as a peace treaty, and thus not a paradox), several people in the discussion were confused by the idea of a "peace treaty" between members of their own society.
The idea of a social contract made more sense to them. And the discussion inspired me to create the following meme:
The Paradox of Tolerance disappears if you look at tolerance, not as a moral standard, but as a social contract.
If someone does not abide by the terms of the contract, then they are not covered by it.
In other words: The intolerant are not following the rules of the social contract of mutual tolerance.
Since they have broken the terms of the contract, they are no longer covered by the contract, and their intolerance should NOT be tolerated.
[inspired by “Tolerance is not a moral precept”]
@ZhiZhu But it's not a social contract and no amount of saying it is, will make it one, because all sides must agree to a contract or it's invalid. The solution is for people to not strive to be tolerant of everything and anything. That which shouldn't be tolerated, must not be tolerated. It's a lesson for people to not attempt or claim they, or others, should tolerate everything.
@tomcrinstam @ZhiZhu It may not be a 'social contract' in the sense that Rousseau used the term, but this is still a good distinction to make, even if there may be a better term for it. I actually think "contract" is a fine term for it -- I offer tolerance to those who do the same; if they don't want to take the deal, then they don't get the benefits. Anyway, the point here is that 'tolerance' is a principle for social organization, not some moral abstraction imposed on each person.
@DecaturNature @ZhiZhu do you always argue with people you agree with?