The Paradox of tolerance

Emanuel

Basel, Schweiz, Thu, 25 Jul 2019 13:47:18 +0200 last edited: Sun, 05 Jul 2020 03:41:58 +0200

Rixty Dixet wrote the following post Wed, 24 Jul 2019 11:06:12 +0200

- #CoolGuides -

- Don’t tolerate the intolerant. Karl Popper, 1945. -

Image/photo

- #bot -

r/coolguides - Don’t tolerate the intolerant. Karl Popper, 1945.

!Gemeinsam philosophieren in Basel

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hEARt PhoniX

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 15:16:24 +0200 last edited: Fri, 26 Jul 2019 00:12:36 +0200

Emanuel

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 15:46:38 +0200

I also agree that respect is a much better concept than tolerance

Xanthor

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 16:07:08 +0200

Simple way to see the paradox : if with a democratic referendum the population ask to stop democracy and reject referendum, what do you do?
Answer: the democracy should have build-in tools to resist such attacks.

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 16:10:16 +0200

Or more simply: when you sit on the branch "Tolerance", "Intolerance" will obviously not support you.

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:00:53 +0200

While citizens having a real say in how they are to be governed through fair elections in a democracy is extremely important, voting alone does not constitute a democracy, the way it works is equally important, with a division of power typically between a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary being some of the other corner stones, free speech, equal rights and the right to assembly being some of the others.

It is possible for citizens to stab their democracy in the back through voting, and we do not have to go back to the democratic Weimar republic before the rise of Adolf Hitler with its lack of electoral thresholds granting a number of small parties and making governing more difficult - it had other problems too.

Just two years ago, in 2018, The Atlantic wrote Turks Have Voted Away Their Democracy , because they voted to diminish the powers of the legislature and judiciary and granting quite a bit more the executive, i.e. to Erdogan.

Erdoğan’s election victory advances his vision of absolute control.

In other words, while there are safe guards, if you allow the safe guards to be removed, it is possible for citizens in a democracy to saw off the branches they are sitting on.

Emanuel

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:45:45 +0200

equal rights

is the key element for me, for a democracy to work. No discrimination shall ever be institutionalized. For controlling this, the division of legislative, executive and judicative is necessary