Why is everyone so intolerant of anything different?

Kenneth Cruz67 said:I remember reading in this book about warfare and its underlying causes (I can't recall the title or author off the top of my head, though I could probably look it up later!), that everything might actually boil down to chemistry—specifically oxytocin. It supposedly has this dual effect where it reinforces your own convictions while simultaneously ramping up your aversion to opposing views. I guess the more you love one thing, the more you end up hating anything different; it’s almost like one cannot exist without the other. So, if that's the case, maybe the only real solution would be total indifference. But then again, if we were all truly indifferent, I suppose even hatred wouldn't really be a big deal anymore.

I find this theory unacceptable.
I don't know who the author is, but oxytocin is primarily linked to maternal love—fine, and yes, to building trust—but its main function is released in high amounts when a mother nurses her infant, making mothers hyper-protective toward their babies, which is necessary, ... Perhaps mothers with newborns exhibit intense hostility or intolerance toward anything threatening their offspring, but that is an instinctive, hormonal reaction. I wouldn't link that to a "dislike of differing viewpoints." That is a massive leap in logic.
Attempting to connect oxytocin, a hormone with purely biological purposes, to a social flaw like intolerance toward different perspectives seems like a highly strained analogy to me.
Chemistry is one thing and psychology is another. While they are related, one cannot be explained solely by the other because they operate on two different levels, each governed by its own set of rules.
It is reductive to isolate a single influence from a lower level and present it as some kind of "ultimate cause."

People, especially the younger generation, have become incredibly sensitive when it comes to politics. They dig their heels in and aren't afraid to jump straight into a heated argument. A group of old friends got together the other day, and predictably, things boiled over. You had one side rooting for labor unions and the other siding with liberals—everyone treats their own views like sacred scripture and refuses to budge. If there's any silver lining, it's that more people are actually paying attention to the political landscape that shapes our lives, whether we realize it or not. That’s a step in the right direction, don't you think?

Justin Garcia7 said:We live in an era that supposedly champions liberalism and free speech, yet somehow, people have never been more easily offended by differing opinions.

Even self-proclaimed classical liberals—those who preach maximum freedom and tolerance—often act like tyrants toward anyone they disagree with. You see it all over social media: people blocking anyone with a different view, claiming that silencing dissent is somehow "liberal."

There are even plenty of high-profile CEOs and successful professionals who waste their precious time bickering with anonymous trolls online, simply because they don't share the same ideology.

It seems everyone is only "liberal" when it suits them; everyone thinks they're right and can't stand someone challenging their worldview.

Usually, religious fanatics are the first to come to mind, but fanaticism isn't just about faith. It exists everywhere. In reality, we’re all fanatics for our own beliefs, each trying to push our own specific agenda.

So, what’s the fix? How do we actually achieve true tolerance? Or is it impossible because we're all too busy viewing everything through our own narrow lens?

It’s kind of creeping up on us—fewer and fewer people are actually going to tell you what bugs them or try to force their views on you. Instead, more people are just judging things silently and keeping their thoughts to themselves...

Having a different perspective is like being the canary in the coal mine...

First off, we really need to ask ourselves who this "we" actually is, right?😁

It seems like "intolerance toward intolerance" might be the only kind of tolerance we have left.