Repressive Tolerance Quotes

“The tolerance which enlarged the range and content of freedom was always partisan - intolerant toward the protagonists of the repressive status quo. ... Can the indiscriminate guaranty of political rights and liberties be repressive? Can such tolerance serve to contain qualitative social change? ... When tolerance mainly serves the protection and preservation of a repressive society, when it serves to neutralize opposition and to render men immune against other and better forms of life, then tolerance has been perverted. ... Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.”
― Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance

“This pure toleration of sense and nonsense is justified by the democratic argument that no one — neither group nor individual — is in possession of the truth, or capable of defining what is right and wrong, good and bad. Therefore, all contesting opinions must be submitted to the people for their deliberation and choice.

But I have already suggested that the democratic argument implies a necessary condition: namely, that the people must be capable of deliberating and choosing on the basis of knowledge; that they must have access to authentic information; and that, on this basis, their evaluation must be the result of autonomous thought.”
― Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance

“Universal toleration becomes questionable when its rationale no longer prevails — when tolerance is extended to individuals who are indoctrinated and manipulated, who express as their own the opinions of their masters, for whom heteronomy has become autonomy.

The telos of tolerance is truth.”
― Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance

“Tolerance toward that which is radically evil now appears as good because it serves the cohesion of the whole on the road to affluence or more affluence. The toleration of the systematic moronization of children and adults alike by publicity and propaganda, the release of destructiveness in aggressive driving, the recruitment for and training of special forces, the impotent and benevolent tolerance toward outright deception in merchandizing, waste, and planned obsolescence are not distortions and aberrations, they are the essence of a system which fosters tolerance as a means for perpetuating the struggle for existence and suppressing the alternatives. The authorities in education, morals, and psychology are vociferous against the increase in juvenile delinquency; they are less vociferous against the proud presentation, in word and deed and pictures, of ever more powerful missiles, rockets, bombs--the mature delinquency of a whole civilization.”
― Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance