I think that successful behavior is contagious, unsuccessful behavior much less so. People will try to copy what you do if they see that you gain something from that behavior. (The rewards may be social, and they are not necessarily worth it. For example, martyrs are admired by fellow believers, and in some people this triggers the reaction “I want to be admired, too”. Even if, from selfish perspective, dying is too much of a cost, and you will not live to experience the benefits of the admiration. Yet the emotion “I want to be admired, too” can be strong.)
If this is correct, then tolerance will be copied only when it is generally recognized as successful. For example, in today’s society, most people see neo-Nazis as losers. Like, yeah, they may be dangerous if you meet them alone, but that probably happens rarely. More importantly, they will never be invited to someone’s party, unless that person is also a fellow neo-Nazi. They are a despised minority—and tolerance wins because few people volunteer to join a despised minority, and some members of the despised minority gradually figure out that it’s not worth it and they leave.
Now imagine a Third-Reich scenario, where Nazis are the people in power, they are rich and successful, they collectively own the government, business, academia, and press. Not approving of Nazis violence gets you cancelled or worse. How many people would copy tolerance in this scenario?
I think that successful behavior is contagious, unsuccessful behavior much less so. People will try to copy what you do if they see that you gain something from that behavior. (The rewards may be social, and they are not necessarily worth it. For example, martyrs are admired by fellow believers, and in some people this triggers the reaction “I want to be admired, too”. Even if, from selfish perspective, dying is too much of a cost, and you will not live to experience the benefits of the admiration. Yet the emotion “I want to be admired, too” can be strong.)
If this is correct, then tolerance will be copied only when it is generally recognized as successful. For example, in today’s society, most people see neo-Nazis as losers. Like, yeah, they may be dangerous if you meet them alone, but that probably happens rarely. More importantly, they will never be invited to someone’s party, unless that person is also a fellow neo-Nazi. They are a despised minority—and tolerance wins because few people volunteer to join a despised minority, and some members of the despised minority gradually figure out that it’s not worth it and they leave.
Now imagine a Third-Reich scenario, where Nazis are the people in power, they are rich and successful, they collectively own the government, business, academia, and press. Not approving of Nazis violence gets you cancelled or worse. How many people would copy tolerance in this scenario?