I want to separate and clarify the two separate concepts of disagreement and intolerance. In our culture, we have enshrined tolerance to over points of view as a natural right. (The validity of this is a separate issue which has already covered.) Accepting tolerance as a good thing implies that disagreement cannot be a bad thing. We can only exercise tolerance in the face of disagreement. After all, to call disagreement bad would be itself intolerant.

I think of these concepts from definitions I adapted from mw dictionary:

disagreement – the state of being at variance
intolerant – unwilling to grant or share rights, extreme sensitivity

I think we should also be careful of equating one with the other. In some cases, the majority view is to disagree with a fridge view. e.g. The majority thinks “Nazis where bad” but is that what we call intolerance? No, we are not intolerant of Nazis because we don’t necessarily mean “Nazis should be deprived of civil rights, etc”. We should not try to link disagreement with the increase in likelyhood of intolerance without solid evidence. It is obvious that disagreement does not automatically lead to intolerance. Even if someone says “view X is poison”, that is not necessarily implying intolerance without further evidence.

Is there any guidance on how strongly we can disagree within the bounds of tolerance? Consider again the quote of H.L.Mencken:

“We must accept the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”

He is advocating respect for their point of view not that we should not disagree. He also implies that if we do disagree, we must do so politely. If asked “what is your honest opinion of my wife?”, we have three options – to evade the question, to lie (which is arguably the worst option) or to be honest. This honesty may lead to disagreement.

If our honest opinion is “she is the ugliest person I have ever met” and we are asked for an honest opinion, the above quote would imply we can voice our strong opinion while being polite.

To conclude, a more concise summary of tolerance than Mencken’s quote is:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire

Anti Citizen One