Persuasion: Is There a Need to Tolerate the Intolerant?

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Sally Kohn: Why should we be tolerant towards people who many of us perceive as being intolerant? She says it's an interesting observation you make, that perhaps i am asking my fellow liberals and progressives to be tolerant of the intolerant. Nothing could be further from the truth., she writes. Even after trump was elected, a majority of republicans surveyed said that they support affirmative action,. But even back in 20 15, on another issue relating to diversity, a most republican surveyed by nbc would prefer an openly gay president to an evangelical christian president.

Irshad Manji has a lot of experience in trying to persuade those who really don’t want to be persuaded.

Early in her career, Irshad wrote two influential books that advocated for a reformed Islam. In conversations with religious conservatives around the world, she found that a combative style did not help her win adherents for her cause; instead, she started to acknowledge their views—before proudly arguing for her own. Now, Irshad runs the Moral Courage project, a pedagogical approach that hopes to make progress on contested issues like racism without shaming its participants.

On the latest episode of The Good Fight, Yascha Mounk talks to Irshad about why we should not judge those who disagree with us; how we can hope to persuade them of our own positions; and why we should be more optimistic about America’s future than is now fashionable.

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Podcast production by John T. Williams and Rebecca Rashid

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