Tolerance traditionally means tolerating people. This has been shifted (some would say cynically) to mean tolerating ideas.
The traditional meaning allows you to have a society. You can live next to someone who you disagree with.
The new meaning is a profoundly negative one. It means that if you are tolerant, then there is something wrong with you, because you are tolerating bad ideas. A society that embraces the second definition doesn't seem like it will last very long.
The traditional definition allows conversations to take place. It gives people space to grow and change their minds. It puts people as more important than ideals.
The new definition makes ideals more important than people. It requires cancelling people if they believe the "wrong" things, or at least unfashionable things.
I'm curious how to be intolerant of an idea while being tolerant of people?
Because practically, aren't ideas tied to people? I don't think you can have an idea survive without people keeping it alive. So how do you express intolerance for "bad" ideas without letting that expression bleed into an intolerance for the people propagating the "bad" idea?
You can hold the idea that a certain religion or philosophy is vile and evil, yet respect and even like certain individuals that are followers or adherents of those beliefs, because individuals are often more than just the essentials of those beliefs.
Take a certain popular religion, for instance. This religion can be judged as evil if you are secular or pro-reason (as opposed to faith). But individuals who practice this religion do so as individuals, and may place more emphasis on certain parts of their religion over others according to their own personal values. In fact it's impossible not to place emphasis on certain aspects of a religion or philosophy when adopting it - even religious zealotry implies an emphasis on perfect obedience and adherence. You can tolerate, accept, or even like a person holding an idea that you can't tolerate due to your own beliefs, for the personal values and virtues exhibited by the individual which are reflected in their emphasis of certain parts of their beliefs.
The traditional meaning allows you to have a society. You can live next to someone who you disagree with.
The new meaning is a profoundly negative one. It means that if you are tolerant, then there is something wrong with you, because you are tolerating bad ideas. A society that embraces the second definition doesn't seem like it will last very long.
The traditional definition allows conversations to take place. It gives people space to grow and change their minds. It puts people as more important than ideals.
The new definition makes ideals more important than people. It requires cancelling people if they believe the "wrong" things, or at least unfashionable things.