I don't think many will be terribly surprised to learn that the younger generation of thinkers is less tolerant than their predecessors, as argued by April Kelly-Woessner. "What about gay rights and other minorities!" you may be crying as you sip your pumpkin spice latte. "We only refuse to tolerate the intolerable." Ah, but that's kind of the point, innit?
Young people are also less tolerant than the middle aged groups toward militarists, communists, and racists. This is not true for tolerance towards homosexuals or atheists, because younger people simply like these groups more. (Political tolerance is not a measure of liking someone, but the willingness to extend political freedoms to those one dislikes).
The emphasis on "social justice," a nonsense phrase that translates roughly to "leftist ideals in vogue at the moment," has rotted the minds of an entire generation and reduced their commitment to the classically liberal notion of political tolerance:
The idea of "liberating tolerance" then is one in which ideas that the left deems to be intolerant are suppressed. It is an Orwellian argument for an "intolerance of intolerance" and it appears to be gaining traction in recent years, reshaping our commitments to free speech, academic freedom, and basic democratic norms. If we look only at people under the age of 40, intolerance is correlated with a "social justice" orientation. That is, I find that people who believe that the government has a responsibility to help poor people and blacks get ahead are also less tolerant. Importantly, this is true even when we look at tolerance towards groups other than blacks. For people over 40, there is no relationship between social justice attitudes and tolerance. I argue that this difference reflects a shift from values of classical liberalism to the New Left. For older generations, support for social justice does not require a rejection of free speech. Thus, this tension between leftist social views and political tolerance is something new.
Emphasis in the original. Pretty great brave new world we're building here. Gotta love it.