Stefano Marinelli on Nostr: Yes, but I think the paradox of tolerance has to be applied consistently. We cannot ...

Yes, but I think the paradox of tolerance has to be applied consistently.

We cannot tolerate intolerance, regardless of where it comes from, and regardless of whether the people expressing it happen to have an ideology close to our own.

Let me give you a real example that I have just been given permission to share, without identifying details.

A few months ago, after some encouragement from me, someone joined the Fediverse. Not the BSD Cafe, but a more general-purpose instance.

They started posting photos, thoughts and experiences, made quite a few mutual connections, and eventually almost stopped using their X account.

At some point, somebody asked why they had not deleted their X account completely. Their answer was simple: they still had a lot of content there that they wanted to keep, and some contacts who had not moved to the Fediverse yet. They hardly used it anymore, but did not want to delete it.

One morning they woke up and discovered that roughly half of their connections here had disappeared.

Then came private messages calling them a Nazi because they still had an account on X. A couple of messages contained very serious threats, including variations of "you posted photos, I know where you live", with additional details.

Then complete strangers started insulting them.

Someone had apparently posted something along the lines of: "Hey, X is a Nazi. Everyone block them."

That was enough: they tried to explain. It made no difference. Eventually they deleted everything and left, disappointed and bitter about the whole experience.

Who benefited from this?

Given time, this person would probably have brought more people to the Fediverse. They might eventually have deleted their X account too.

Instead, the exact opposite happened.

And this is precisely why I think we have to be careful when invoking the paradox of tolerance.

Being intolerant of people who threaten others, deny their rights, intimidate them or organise harassment is one thing.

Deciding that somebody belongs to a morally unacceptable category, and therefore intimidation, collective punishment or harassment against them becomes justified, is something very different.

Intolerance does not become tolerance just because we believe we are using it against the right people.