By: James Freeman – wsj.com – July 14, 2025

The political left considers the tolerance option.

Not too long ago, I felt a civic duty to be rude to my wife’s younger brother… I was one of President Barack Obama’s speechwriters and had an Ivy League degree; he was a huge Joe Rogan fan and went on to get his electrician’s license. My early memories of Matt are hazy — I was mostly trying to impress his parents. Still we got along, chatting amiably on holidays and at family events.

Then the pandemic hit, and our preferences began to feel like more than differences in taste. We were on opposite sides of a cultural civil war. The deepest divide was vaccination. I wasn’t shocked when Matt didn’t get the Covid shot. But I was baffled. Turning down a vaccine during a pandemic seemed like a rejection of science and self-preservation. It felt like he was tearing up the social contract that, until that point, I’d imagined we shared.

Had Matt been a friend rather than a family member, I probably would have cut off contact completely.

Mr. Litt goes on to explain how, despite his brother-in-law’s continued noncompliance with Mr. Litt’s opinions, the two have found common interests that have nothing to do with ideology. The men have even managed to forge a friendship while surfing together off the Jersey Shore.

Mr. Litt concludes his piece by advising Times readers to be open-minded about friendships. But since he’s a former Obama aide writing in the Times, he can’t quite make it to the end of a short essay on tolerance without cancelling somebody, so here’s the big finish:

Our differences are meaningful, but allowing them to mean everything is part of how we ended up here. When we cut off contacts, or let algorithms sort us into warring factions, we forget that not so long ago, we used to have things to talk about that didn’t involve politics. Shunning plays into the hands of demagogues, making it easier for them to divide us and even, in some cases, to incite violence.

There are, of course, some people so committed to odiousness that it defines them. If Stephen Miller wants a surf lesson, I’ll decline. But are most people like that? In an age when banishment backfires, keeping the door open to unlikely friendship isn’t a betrayal of principles — it’s an affirmation of them.

Your humble correspondent doesn’t share Mr. Miller’s immigration agenda either but figures that Mr. Litt has missed the point of his own advice. In any case, Times readers likely have less need for a reminder to be open to a diverse set of friendships than the newspaper’s editors and reporters do.

It does say something about the extent of progressive intolerance over the last decade that Times editors figured it would be informative and thought-provoking to publish the ancient truism that people can enjoy each other’s company while holding different points of view.

***

Meanwhile on the left coast, the good people of San Francisco are currently running a test of whether arbitrary and capricious public cancellations should be culturally acceptable in the City by the Bay. Wasn’t this city once synonymous with tolerance?

Susana Guerrero reported recently for SFGate:

San Francisco’s storied Swan Oyster Depot has been slammed with 1-star reviews after a social media post publicized what appeared to be the business’ support for President Donald Trump.

Kat Ensign, who is known as @katwalksf on TikTok, shared a post on Tuesday that revealed a hat perched on a shelf inside the 113-year-old restaurant. The hat featured the numbers 45 and 47, which represent Trump’s presidential terms. In her post, Ensign said that she spotted the hat as she waited in line during a visit to Swan Oyster Depot, and she captioned the post with, “Am I late to the game or did everyone know this?” The image was later shared on Reddit, where it has garnered hundreds of negative comments and eventually led to a slew of 1-star reviews on Google and Yelp…

Ms. Guerrero has management’s response to the allegations of hat-related offenses:

Kevin Sancimino, co-owner of Swan Oyster Depot, told SFGATE that he saw Ensign’s social media post earlier this week and found that it was an unfair representation of his family business. Swan Oyster Depot routinely receives gifts from customers that are often placed throughout the store. The Trump hat was no exception and was added to a store shelf sometime earlier this year, he said…

Sancimino continued that Ensign’s post was simply a “snapshot” of his restaurant and did not show the full picture. While Swan Oyster Depot doesn’t post political banners or signs showing support of any political party, it does embrace different political viewpoints, he said. That’s one reason why Sancimino decided to display the Trump hat inside his business among a stack of books that included a copy of “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Her Essential Wisdom,” he said. For his part, Sancimino did not find the Trump hat to be “super offensive” when compared to the politically charged MAGA hats.

Mr. Sancimino understates his case. For any reasonable visitor to the restaurant, a hat accurately noting that Mr. Trump is our 45th and 47th president ought to be less controversial than a book claiming that Hillary Clinton offers essential wisdom.

But why not happily tolerate the Clinton puffery to enjoy a good meal with friends? Next thing you know visitors from out of town might start claiming they’re offended by the sight of 49ers jerseys on the walls.

Ms. Guerrero’s report continues:

“People can have their different political views, and we can all coexist in the same space,” Sancimino said. “I just find it to be a little bit sad that somebody would try to make a pariah out of someone or their business for having an alternative political view. … It seems myopic. … Why does political belief not fall under the realm of inclusivity?”

Perhaps the Times erred in not assigning this week’s guest essay to Mr. Sancimino. But his message ought to be circulated in the Times newsroom where it is always sorely needed.

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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/are-liberals-finally-tiring-of-cancel-culture-96525b9b