ABSTRACT
Achieving tolerance requires more than heartfelt admonitions. Of the utmost importance, classic tolerance inescapably connects "tolerance" to a negative judgment. Treating tolerance as something concerning society, apart from people collectively, suggests entirely different and, critically, proven recipes. It is true that while heightened tolerance is, at least in principle, widely desired, powerful financial and political incentives often push in the opposite direction. Laws penalizing employers for hostile work environments, even holding them responsible for the casual slights of other employees now rewards uncovering intolerance. There is an irony regarding simultaneously promoting tolerance together with ethnic, racial, sexual, linguistic, and similar group identities. Ignoring a child's drug addiction in the name of "tolerance" abdicates parental responsibility, and hardly deserves praise as live and let live acceptance. While preaching tolerance effortlessly captures the rhetorical high ground, abominations abound, so unavoidable choices regarding the demarcation of the acceptable from the truly loathsome are required.
