Is it just me or does reality seem to be decaying into a surreal hallucination the last few years.<p>While I agree with the thrust of the argument, if I'm reading it correctly, that damaging extremists are probably not worthy of tolerance, I find the chipping-away at fundamental values to be disquieting. Pushing the argument further, at what point is tolerance justified? Only when dealing with people who agree with you? In which case it's no longer "tolerance".<p>If we're going to chip away at values, why not question all kinds of other fundamentals? Why should people of all types get equal work opportunities, equal pay, when they may have other natural advantages/disadvantages in society at large? Why should talented/smart/beautiful/athletically-endowed people (and, of course, middle-class white males, naturally) get rewarded with much greater wealth-per-effort than others? To what extent should society try to "redress the balance" with taxes/benefits? Why should we reward mere ownership of productive assets, rather than only personal productivity? Then there's a step-back look at modern society, with the nuclear family, work-for-wages, etc, which are relatively new and untested developments in society relative to the age of humanity.<p>Etc, etc, etc.<p>I'm not advocating any position on these issues, merely that if we're going to start questioning fundamental assumptions about how society should be, we may as well be comprehensive.