Alan Jacobs


#
In this way, intolerance is not a static measure.  If it were, we would still be measuring it based on freedom granted to communists, as Stouffer did in 1955.  In fact, some studies in the 1970s did just that, declaring that Americans had become more tolerant as their hostility towards communists declined.  But Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus (1979) pointed out that these increases in tolerance were “illusory,” in that communists were simply no longer the most disliked group.  Intolerance had shifted to other groups.  The same is true today.  While attitudes towards communists and homosexuals have changed over time, the majority of Americans still deny rights to their political enemies.  According to the 2012 GSS, 77 percent of the population will deny rights to at least one of the groups mentioned, with Muslims being the most frequently oppressed group.