Why is a More Tolerant Society a Better Society?

 

Lee C. Bollinger
Photo provided by The Federalist Society

Back in 1986, Lee C. Bollinger, a member of the Oxford University Press, published an article titled The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech in America. In his article, he talks about his idea of a more tolerant society, aka a society that is used to hearing hateful or upsetting things, would be a better society. The reasoning for this? We hear things that could upset us so often, that we are becoming numb to it. Its impact will be smaller and smaller each time we hear something. This is now one of the Eight Values of Free Expression, and I would like to provide my own view on it. 

I actually like the idea of this theory. A society that is so used to hearing harsh things, either directed at them or just around them, will be more tolerant, and toughened up. I say this due to a personal experience of mine: 

Way back when I went to High School, I had switched from a small private school where I had been all my life, to the largest public school in my county. As you can imagine, this was a very dramatic change.  I was in a new environment, and completely on my own. I was no longer a closeted child who went to private school. I had to learn how to navigate around different kinds of people. Different ways of life. I was quickly accustomed to harsh language that I would not hear at my private school. Additionally, every time I would go to the bathroom I would see someone vaping or doing some sort of illicit activity. 

While there was no hate speech here, it did get very close to it during my senior year of high school. We had already done a year of school online due to Covid, and when we returned we had to wear masks. I obliged with this for the majority of the year. But eventually I was starting to get stressed out, and was granted a mask exception from the school principal, as well as my doctor. Well there were some kids in my AP Government class who did NOT like this. They had taken photos of me, and put them all up on social media declaring me a white supremacist. Surprisingly, despite the posts getting taken down rather quickly, word had spread very fast, and I was in the middle of an "angry mob" for a few weeks. I had eventually learned to pay them no mind, and to just do my own business. When the school finally declared that we did not have to wear masks, the white supremacist accusations and hate towards me finally started to dwindle down. 

Nowadays, I just don't care what other people thing of me. I have grown so accustomed to drama, that I pay rumors no mind. Harsh language and smoking don't bother me. So, my reasoning for believing that a Tolerant Society is a better society, is due to first hand experience. People these days are always hearing about crazy things happening, and crazy people. Social media is a hell of a drug, and can show you the extreme. And news will cover events that might make you scared, or hint about wars. But your average person just doesn't care anymore. We as a society are all used to hearing this, and have grown accustomed to it. Think of all the people who make jokes about 9/11 these days!