We should learn how to disagree - Free speech and tolerance

THOUGH the White House election is still some months away the world is almost inured to the wild, dangerous, racist and reactionary statements from Donald Trump. 

The post-factual Republican party candidate is doing so much damage to the West’s political cultures, America’s reputation as an exemplary democracy, and weakening what might be loosely termed the alliance of the West.

The support for Trump is undeniable but it is alarming as it is built on one reckless, incoherent and incendiary statement after the other, statements so transparently false, uninformed and deliberately provocative that it is all but impossible to understand why otherwise sane and rational people, seemingly at least, might support him. It is even more difficult to understand — without being dangerously, deeply cynical — how a person with even a moderate degree of intelligence, perception or emotional empathy could make them.