We explain what intolerance is according to various meanings, the types that exist and detailed examples from history and today.
What is intolerance?
The word intolerance means, in general terms, a high degree of rejection towards something or someone. In that sense, it is a term that is used in different contexts to refer attitudes lack of empathy, understanding and acceptance of something that is alien to us, other, different.
Thus, for example, in the medical and nutritional field, food intolerances are the inability to digest certain food or certain substances, or to assimilate them harmoniously. The persons Lactose intolerant, for example, suffer when digesting dairy, as their organisms lack certain enzymes indispensable for it.
However, intolerance in the sociological field implies attitudes of rejection and confrontation towards everything perceived as alien, be they individuals, tendencies of thought or cultural manifestations.
Simply put, intolerance manifests itself in attitudes of visceral rejection towards the other, that is, a priori rejection, rooted in the prejudice or in trauma, but that is not handled in a rational or empathic way.
In this area, intolerance constitutes a social problem, as it lays the foundation for actions and speeches discriminatory, for social segregation, and can lead to fanatical, fundamentalist attitudes, and persecution or hate crimes.
Types of intolerance
Intolerance in the sociological field is differentiated based on the criterion by which rejection of others is expressed, which may be:
- Intolerance politics or ideological. It consists of the fanatical rejection of certain forms of thought, social or political views, or simply the commitment fanatic with one cause, which a priori dismisses or considers wrong any other.
- Gender intolerance. In this case, the rejection is manifested against people of a certain gender or sexual orientation, when not against the other sex, which often leads to sexism, homophobia or transphobia.
- Racial or cultural intolerance. As its name expresses it, it directs its hatred towards a certain race or skin color, or simply towards those whom it considers foreigners, members of a culture different, alien. In that sense, it usually manifests as xenophobia or as racism.
- Religious intolerance It consists of the intense rejection of any religion specific or certain type of mystical manifestations. It is common among religious fundamentalists.
Despite there being different forms of intolerance, they usually coincide in the same individual, that is, they go together. Thus, it is common for intolerance towards foreigners or xenophobia to be accompanied by hatred of their religion, their culture, their skin color, etc.
Examples of intolerance
Unfortunately, examples of intolerance abound in our history previous and recent as a species. Here are some specific cases:
- European anti-Semitism. The Jewish people have been a wandering people since ancient times, when their Condition it was invaded and destroyed by the imperial forces of the time. Since then, they have lived through a painful diaspora that has led them to merge to a greater or lesser degree with other cultures and nationalities, having a presence in almost the entire world. This has led to attitudes of rejection and intolerance, the climax of which was the pogroms of the Europe of the East in the twentieth century and, of course, the systematic genocide German Nazism, a movement that held them responsible for the depression German economic.
- The Ku Klux Klan. Created in the 19th century at the end of the war of American secession, this movement brought together under its wing diverse groups of the extreme right who professed a deep racial intolerance: the supremacy of the white race. Thus, their xenophobic, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-communist attitudes were common. Its members used to wear a white robe and hood, and their symbol was a fiery cross.
- Islamic fundamentalism. At the beginning of the 21st century, different radical Arab religious groups, followers of the Islam, they armed themselves in a single dispersed army under the banner of the holy war or jihad, and they prepared to wage a war against the western powers by means of terrorism. Groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh) aspired to establish a religious state that would unify the practitioners of Islam under religious law (sharia) as expressed in the Qur'an. Christians, infidels, homosexuals and other minorities, under his regime, had to be oppressed or eliminated.