Well, what happens when the pendulum swings too far the other way? You end up with people killing people because they’re not the right flavor of whatever is locally approved. Or confiscating their property because they’re the wrong flavor.
Like, look at England during Henry VIII/Edward VI/Mary I/Elizabeth I. They were really dangerous times. You’ve got the entire Dissolution of the Monasteries, where a third of the land in England and Wales gets taken away from the Church-- it’s parceled out between about 850 different monasteries/convents/friaries/abbeys/whatevers-- and the King says, “These are mine.” And the King fails to actually hold on to those lands for himself… it ends up getting given to the nobility and aristocracy who already owned probably another third of the land in England and Wales. And that’s not even counting all the private families who ended up having their property confiscated. Or the killings of priests and laiety.
And then years pass-- and say, Mary I is on the throne. The pendulum swings the other direction. Now it’s safe to be Catholic, and unsafe to not-be. More killing goes on.
And the years pass. And then it’s Elizabeth on the throne. Back to the other direction. Not safe to be Catholic. More killings and confiscation.
Why did the Pilgrims leave England during James VI? So they could practice their religion unimpeded elsewhere. But did they say, “Hey, let’s have tolerance!” No— if you wanted to live in Jamestown, you needed to subscribe to their beliefs. And if you celebrated Christmas, instead of keeping it as another work day-- that’s a fine, thank you very much.
Or, look to the modern day. There was an article in Forbes back in 2014 when ISIS had taken over Mosul, and had told the local Christians to convert, pay the jizya tax, or leave. (Before, “death” used to be one freely advertised option as well.) Or look to Syria— Paul began his ministry in Damascus, and Christians have historically made up about 10% of the population in modern times, but between now and 2011, half of Syria and Iraq’s Christians have left the cities they’ve inhabited for 2,000 years.
So-- those are examples of “intolerance”, and how it doesn’t lead to solid, trustworthy economies that people can build their families on.
But at the same time— “tolerance” is also used as one of those words that means what you want it to mean when you want it to, and doesn’t mean what you want it to mean when you don’t want it to. So, it devolves into a “let’s be tolerant-- as long as you agree with me” mindset, where if you disagree with someone, you’re automatically branded racist/bigoted/homophobic/whatever, rather than having an honest conversation with multiple perspectives.
