The Paradox of Tolerance, Intolerant Speakers, and Active Audiences

This article demonstrates that the paradox of tolerance postulates the existence of a special kind of tolerant person who must respond to intolerant discourses by showing her commitment to tolerant principles in public. To better understand intolerant discourses within an otherwise-tolerant society, I scrutinize the communicative relation between a racist speaker and his audience. Contrary to what the paradox of tolerance seems to entail, members of the audience are not passive recipients, but active producers of meaning who establish the conversational context within which intolerant speakers can move. When we understand members of the audience as active producers of meaning, a tolerant who wants to preserve the tolerant character of his society must distance herself from the intolerant speaker after an intolerant public discourse (action a). She also must challenge those intolerant dispositions in the audience that make an intolerant speaker select a certain kind of discourse against many other alternatives (action b). This article, then, opens a reflection on the relation between the paradox of tolerance and the self-constructed image of liberal societies as communities characterized by a tolerant character. On this view, when we live in a truly tolerant society, intolerant discourses should be seen as opportunities for differentiation (action a), where, through the work of tolerant of a special kind, the tolerant society can reaffirm its principles (action b). Meanwhile, if we are unsure about the strength of tolerance in our society, a society in which very few people may stand for tolerant principles in public, suppressing intolerant discourses may be a way to act as if we were still living in a truly tolerant society. One or the other option, then, could be seen as a proxy to monitor how tolerant our societies truly are.