Thread by @JeffRybak

One of the most disturbing things I've seen lately, in American but also Canadian political discourse, is the suggestion that any amount of civility or acceptance of the other side represents appeasement and betrayal. I cannot emphasize how wrong and scary this is. #cdnpoli 1/14

Coming mainly from the left, the logic runs as follows. They have unacceptable ideas and values. Their values are an attack on me. Accepting them at all means accepting their views, and condoning the threat to me. Nothing less than total condemnation is enough. #cdnpoli 2/14

The main problem with this attitude is that it conflates accepting the idea with accepting the person. To call an idea unacceptable is very reasonable. To call a person unacceptable is problematic. After you've refused to accept all these people, what next? #cdnpoli 3/14

The unavoidable reality is that after this latest round of political division - and after many more rounds too - we're all going to continue living in the same society together. We need shared discourse. Politics isn't the problem - it's actually how we do it. #cdnpoli 4/14

Many are disturbed at the rise in extremism. I am too. There are few positions more extreme than "you are an unacceptable person." We really have to stop treating those who hold views we disagree with that way, and treating attempts to engage with them as wrong. #cdnpoli 5/14

The problem with writing off whole segments of our society isn't only that it's wrong - though it is - it's when we move to that extreme we leave them nowhere to go. Their own side, and its more extreme elements, are the only place left they find acceptance. #cdnpoli 6/14

What I'm discussing, frankly, is amnesty. I'm going to use an extreme example. Bear in mind, my family is Jewish. This is my example to use, and I do so knowing what it is. After WWII, many people struggled with what to do with all the Nazis. Many still do. #cdnpoli 7/14

There were many literal Nazis after the war - members of the Nazi Party. As many as 8.5 million, by the end. The leadership was...evil. There's no other word for it. But the large majority were just regular people. And a line must be drawn between one and the other. #cdnpoli 8/14

Why would someone join a movement with visible, terrible objectives? Many reasons, I suppose. They may not see, may not believe, may imagine their reasons outweigh the cost. Everyone they know has joined. They feel they have no choice. That's the big one. #cdnpoli 9/14

The terrible, insidious thing about Nazism, and also other and lesser examples, is once you get people to sign onto something that's rejected by most others, they are trapped. During WWII, what's an average German to do, anyway? There are no good answers. #cdnpoli 10/14

The only way to end the cycle of extremism is to let people out of the trap. Yes, even if we think they entered it willingly. The Nazi example is nth-level extremism and that's my point. If we can find a way to move on from that, we can surely move on from this. #cdnpoli 11/14

People are screaming for blood - and screaming too much, frankly. People want accountability, and that's fine. From the few, top leaders. I don't know any of them personally - do you? The folks I talk with are all regular people - wrong-headed, but just people. #cdnpoli 12/14

Making space for those we disagree with is hard. Accepting them is hard. It's actually a great relief to stop trying. Well, the break is over. The hard work begins when we admit we all continue to share this society together, and we need to get along somehow. #cdnpoli 13/14

Tolerance is not weakness. Dialogue is not compromise. The effort to get along with people we disagree with is not an abdication of our values - it is the realization and expression of our values. Good, strong people have overcome far more in the past. We can too. #cdnpoli 14/14