Scott Alexander ponders what an outgroup really is in a long post: I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup.
It seems to me that you only pardon the sins that you don’t really think sinful. You only forgive criminals when they commit what you don’t regard as crimes, but rather as conventions. You forgive a conventional duel just as you forgive a conventional divorce. You forgive because there isn’t anything to be forgiven.
…But the best thing that could happen to this post is that it makes a lot of people, especially myself, figure out how to be more tolerant. Not in the “of course I’m tolerant, why shouldn’t I be?” sense of the Emperor in Part I. But in the sense of “being tolerant makes me see red, makes me sweat blood, but darn it I am going to be tolerant anyway.”
I do trust all the ideas you’ve presented on your post.
They are really convincing and can definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too short
for novices. Could you please prolong them a little from next time?
Thank you for the post.
Thanks, Madeline. I appreciate your confidence that I have something to say worth reading. I, on the other hand, am not so sure.
My purpose for posting is to give myself a place to save excellent articles. I add a few words to frame the idea but the good stuff is in the link. Click over to StarSlateCodex and you’ll find a satisfying 20-page article with a thousand response discussion.
If you’d like to talk/argue/complain afterwards, come on back.