kmhess writes “Kevin Drum, over at Political Animal answers a question I think LISNews has been struggling with over the past few days:
“Is it okay if I’m universally intolerant of people who don’t share my point-of-view, or am I supposed to be nice to everyone?”
Kevin proposes moderation:
“I think…you should seek to understand alternative views up to a point and you should also be intolerant of alternative views up to a point. What point? Good judgment and trial and error are about the only ways to figure it out.
…
Taken generally, this also demonstrates one of the primary strengths of liberal democracy as a political system: it’s very hard for extremism to take hold. Various viewpoints ebb and flow, but they very rarely get to the catastrophic point that is sadly common under authoritarian systems. This institutional moderation allows societies to grow steadily over long periods, rather than crashing and burning periodically and having to start over nearly from scratch.””
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