Germans and Tolerance

Tolerance is often defined in odd ways.  Officially, tolerance means that you have the ability to condone, abide and accept the continuation and aspect of ideas or behaviour that some might be prejudicial about or strongly disagree.

Examples of tolerance?  You have a party and decide to serve a couple of unique dishes which aren't appreciated by many guests but they say little negative about the experience.  You buy a vehicle without consulting your wife, and she mostly avoids any harsh criticism about the car that she really hates.  As a teacher, you introduce topics which tend to make the bulk of the class uneasy and uncomfortable, yet they avoid complaints or criticism of the subject matter.

Some cultures have a very low threshold for tolerance.  Some cultures have an extremely high threshold for tolerance.  And some cultures have what I would call.....a fake tolerance.  This is typically where they talk excessively about their level of tolerance, but you continually find examples of their tolerance as being marginal or non-existent.

If you talk around to tolerance experts, they all suggest that several levels exist....from the point of absolute tolerance, down to the level of zero tolerance (usually meaning a tough society and reactionary episodes occurring daily).

Oddly, in Germany, I've come to the mind that high, low and fake tolerance all exists in the public sector.

It is absolutely true that the intellectual side of journalism and politics are working hard to convey absolute tolerance across all of German society. You see countless examples of this via the German news media each week....as they work to show you how these teens accepted diversity, or how some immigrants helped a community, or how several religious groups had a big 'hug'.  Then you see episodes where various Germans displayed a low threshold for tolerance, and challenged the perception that tolerance exists.

And then you have fake tolerance.

This is usually where some intellectual or journalists wants to condemn something outside of their society....either in some other part of Europe, the world, or perhaps even in the US.  They demonstrate their inability to accept or condone something that a society elsewhere has determined as the 'norm'. The problem with this demonstration....it starts to convince Germans that being fake-tolerant is perfectly acceptable.

It's reached a point now where some Germans talk about tolerance on a continual basis....as if bragging about their level or suggesting that others just aren't as tolerant as them.  You can be amused by this behavior but lays out this small character flaw of some Germans. 

Are all Germans this way?  No.  That's the amusing part of the story.  Some folks might go an entire year without every thinking about their tolerance level, or lack of tolerance.  You can ask some Germans about their perception of Chancellor Merkel and you get a 60-second dose of fairly harsh criticism.  It's what you'd call personal criticism without holding back.  Naturally, the same person would offer harsh criticism over certain cars.....certain women....certain beer.  In their mind, they really don't need any lecture on tolerance....they'd really prefer to dish out honest blunt truth.

So when you sit and pause over understanding Germans....you might want to take tolerance into consideration, and the issue of some folks having fake tolerance, and some folks having zero tolerance.