The rise of intolerance
Observing the slew of executive orders from the President of the United States, particularly mandating only two recognized genders, attempting to remove birthright citizenship, freezing funds for medical research, and initiating the country’s withdrawal from international commitments and memberships such as the Paris Agreement, the World Health Organization, and the International Criminal Court, it is quite shocking to my system as to how fast rights and protections can disappear with a swish of a pen.
Some years ago, I made a conscious decision not to actively look up US politics. The biggest reason is for my sanity. The other reason is to invest my energy and effort more toward getting to know our local political landscape, which has an immediate impact on my wards: my clients and my students. I have also been very mindful of the curation of my social media feeds so as not to be inundated with global politics, which has been getting more divisive every year. I was so successful at this self-imposed discipline that it wasn’t until Donald Trump was reelected that my social feed was once again invaded by US politics.
More interestingly, this time, it was showing me the other side. It was showing me anti-immigrant rhetoric such as “deport them all,” with Trump supporters gleefully imagining a post-immigrant utopia after Trump had US Immigration and Customs Enforcement go on multiple raids within days of his presidency. There were also anti-trans posts with buzzwords such as “gender ideology,” celebrating Trump’s removal of trans individuals from the military service. At first, I was horrified, thinking that my social media algorithm has assumed that I would actually like these posts. Then I got paranoid, wondering if social media moguls like Zuckerberg (Meta, Facebook) and Musk (X, formerly Twitter) have modified the algorithm to force this perspective. In the end, I took it on as an anthropological challenge to see how the other side thinks, to force myself to consider their perspective and see if they have a reasonable argument that I may have missed.
As I mentally take a step back and attempt an observer stance (as I am certainly not neutral nor do I wish to be), I wonder how we got to this point. There has always been a lively back-and-forth between conservative and progressive values. The most successful countries manage to balance both, maximize the strength of each (for example, upholding family values and protecting individual rights and autonomy at the same time), and guard against extremist views.
But what is happening here is not mere conservatism. What is happening is the rise of intolerance. This is what historians, scholars, and survivors are warning us: that intolerance can lead us back to wars, genocides, and great human suffering. Already, President Trump has casually stated wanting to take Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada, as if these territories were merely on his shopping list. He has threatened to impose tariffs on countries like Colombia and Taiwan, provoking trade wars. He has stopped all foreign aid, except for weapons support for Israel, and has publicly suggested “cleaning out Gaza.” He has done all this with the support and approval from his supporters and any backlash was dismissed as mere liberal cries.
Is it possible to be conservative without being intolerant? Conservatism is a political view that values tradition and is cautious toward change. In the Philippines, to be a conservative means to uphold traditional family values as well as religious values. This differs in the American context where to be a conservative also includes being fiscally conservative or leaning away from taxes and government regulation and mandates. Tolerance, in the meantime, pertains to respecting the rights of others even as they differ from you. A conservative can still practice tolerance as they advocate for their values while still respecting the views and rights of others. In fact, since our own version of conservatism in the Philippines is so deeply rooted in respect for the collective, all the more we should expect true conservatives to be respectful of others, recognizing the importance of community relationships.
Tolerance reminds us that our fates are all connected. That one’s well-being and suffering affect our own, and vice versa. When tolerance disappears, we begin to think of others as simply that, as another. We run the risk of dehumanizing people or believing that they are less deserving of rights. As we distance ourselves from the experience of others, we care less. We have less empathy and compassion. We rationalize or minimize their suffering. We get so disconnected from them that when they are subjected to cruelty, we cheer. On a bigger scale, when countries fail to respect that our fates are all connected and cooperation is seen as a weakness rather than as a necessary tool for the survival of the human race, intolerance thrives, and cruelty begins.
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aatuazon@up.edu.ph
