Tolerance of intolerance

About

Tolerance of intolerance is the idea of tolerating ideas and actions which are themselves intolerant. It is usually expressed in other forms, most commonly in defense of religion.

Conclusions

While it may sound like scoring a point to accuse someone of being intolerant of X, if the X is itself an intolerant view, then tolerating it would actually be an act of passive intolerance, while not tolerating it actually supports the goals of tolerance. "Being intolerant of intolerance" does not promote intolerance any more than "taking trash to the trash can" promotes littering.

The idea this phrase attempts to propagate is, therefore, essentially a form of trolling, in that it's promoting intolerance while hiding behind an argument that, on the surface, seems to be in support of tolerance.

Taxonomy

While the idea that one should tolerate intolerance is a sort of troll concept, "tolerance of intolerance" is not itself a troll phrase since it is generally intended to expose the essential trolling nature of arguments which are based upon it by making its logical flaw more glaring. Trolls [rarely argue explicitly for a need to be "tolerant of intolerance", since that would more or less give the game away, although an implicit argument for "tolerance of intolerant people" has been spotted in the wild.