You cannot tolerate everyone. It is just not possible and it's not right either.

In fact, there is a term for it called the "paradox of tolerance" coined by Karl Popper. It simply means that "if a society is tolerant without limit, their ability to be tolerant will eventually be destroyed by the intolerant." According to Popper, to have a tolerant society we must be "intolerant of intolerance".

During current dialogues, I hear a lot of comments ranging from "you're close-minded for not accepting their opinion" to "if you believe in acceptance you must accept all beliefs." But this comes from a place where it has to be one or the other, it has to be black or white. The world does not operate like that and it shouldn't. It's shades of grey.

It is not close-minded or intolerant to not be accepting of racist or sexist speeches. For example, if I am tolerant of white supremacists then I am accepting their beliefs as okay which inevitably means that I am not tolerant of people of color. If someone's core value is directly intertwined with the disembodiment of someone else's identity, it is not intolerant or close-minded to put their opinions down.

Conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren loves espousing catchy phrases such as "The Loving and Tolerant Left Is Anything But..." as an acceptable way of questioning why liberals argue with her racist hate speech if they are "all about acceptance." We as a society need to constantly fight against this illogical fallacy of accepting everything because it will inevitably lead us to accept racist, sexist, or homophobic ideologies too.

The term "paradox of tolerance" was created in 1945. Does the date ring a bell of what was occurring globally? Almost as if a country committed genocide while still asking its citizens to be tolerant towards all views, even Nazis? Does it feel a little deja vu as we hear the news right now?