Liberal tolerance means treating opponents as legitimate enemies, not neutralizing conflict

Evidence

This is the real meaning of liberal-democratic tolerance, which does not entail condoning ideas that we oppose or being indifferent to standpoints that we disagree with. but treating those who defend them as legitimate opponents. This category of the ‘adversary’ does not eliminate antagonism, though. and it should be distinguished from the liberal notion of the competitor with which it is sometimes identified. An adversary is an enemy. but a legitimate enemy. one with whom we have some common ground because we have a shared adhesion to the ethico-polirical principles of liberal democracy: libeny and equality. But we disagree concerning the meaning and implementation of those principles, and such a disagreement is not one that could be resolved through deliberation and rational discussion. Indeed, given the ineradicable pluralism of value. there is no rational resolution of the conflict. hence its antagonistic dimension. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 459

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the crucial adversary category against both enemy and liberal competitor, central to the whole agonistic framework.
• DEEPTHINKING: The core conceptual move distinguishing ‘adversary’ from both ‘enemy’ and liberal ‘competitor’ — the load-bearing distinction this book’s argument rests on; dense, demands sustained return.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s framing about whether a non-exclusionary pluralist ‘we’ is conceivable; also echoes Rawls’s reasonable pluralism and the ‘fact of pluralism’ discussion. — connects to: Liberal tolerance paradoxically justifies violence against the allegedly intolerant — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 695; Liberal tolerance itself constructs and reproduces the others it claims to accept — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 494; An enemy relation is not reducible to hostility or enmity. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 435 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• An enemy relation is not reducible to hostility or enmity. #expands (0.85) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 435
• Tolerance neutralizes subversion by transforming radical ideas into fads. #contradicts (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 221
• Liberal tolerance itself constructs and reproduces the others it claims to accept #complicates (0.80) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 494
• The enemy is not definable solely through war #expands (0.80) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 821
• Liberal tolerance paradoxically justifies violence against the allegedly intolerant #complicates (0.78) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 695
• Liberal neutrality masks power by presenting exclusion as reason’s product #complicates (0.78) — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 135
• The neutral liberal subject is defined against the racialized communitarian other #complicates (0.76)
• Liberal tolerance of religion extends only to religions accepting liberal discursive assumptions #qualifies (0.75) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 893
• Liberal containment of Islamophobia serves counterinsurgency strategy, not tolerance #complicates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 574
• Liberalism is not actually impartial in theory or practice #qualifies (0.74) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 357
• Resolving one conflict merely produces a fresh enemy to define oneself against #expands (0.73) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 353