
The Purity Paradox: How Tolerance and Intolerance Increase at the Same Time - sojournerc
https://quillette.com/2020/06/19/the-purity-paradox-how-tolerance-and-intolerance-increase-at-the-same-time/
======
pmdulaney
Many years ago, as a high school sophomore, I took an elective called
International Relations, taught by the social studies department chairman, a
man who had a Ph.D. in political theory. I remember his hero was Hans J.
Morgenthau. I did well in the class, despite the fact that I was competing
mostly with seniors.

The next year I was in honors US History. The teacher of that class was good
friends with the chairman of the department. The chairman told my teacher:
Give Paul (my name) a C on his interim report card -- that will inspire him to
work harder.

The fact is, I thought I was doing very well in that class. When I saw that C
on my interim report card I was totally demotivated. When the teacher
explained to me how the C was just ploy I came to an important realization: I
would work much harder to maintain an A than I would to try to improve a C.

That is what I feel about the current environment. If you are white you are
led to believe that you are a racist no matter what you do. Psychologically it
is a bust. Black America, here is what you should do: Tell us that we've come
a long way, we've given it a good faith effort -- but there are still some
areas where things could be better.

~~~
eesmith
In the now flagged HN post you asked about non-left example of "unilaterally
remov[ing] a cultural artifact that belongs to all of society".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#Historical_markers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#Historical_markers)
is pretty famous. Related examples are [https://www.kshb.com/news/local-
news/slavery-opponent-john-b...](https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/slavery-
opponent-john-browns-statue-hit-again-by-vandals),
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Harrington#Vandalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Harrington#Vandalism)
, and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashburn_Colored_School#Vandali...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashburn_Colored_School#Vandalism_incident)
.

As examples matching your Margaret Sanger example, there are plenty of
requests to tear down MLK, Malcom X, and Mandela statues .

For a right-wing example concerning the Troubles in Ireland,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_Russell#Attacks_on_m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_Russell#Attacks_on_memorial_to_Se%C3%A1n_Russell)
.

