ABSTRACT
In Regulating Aversion, the philosopher Wendy Brown makes the point that “[t]olerance as a political practice is always conferred by the dominant, it is always a certain expression of domination even as it offers protection or incorporation to the less powerful” (Brown 2008, 178). Those who are perceived to be intolerant are defined by tolerant Westerners as barbarians, she proposes, and as such a legitimate target of aggression. The result is that tolerance, in marking what is “civilised,” confers superiority on the West, even in such cases when Western liberals concede that “the other” too may be “tolerant.” The discursive act of labelling establishes the relationship of dominance (see Brown 2008, 176-258).
