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Not enough people are aware of the Paradox of Tolerance:

"The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly paradoxical idea that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must retain the right to be intolerant of intolerance."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance



I find it hilarious when this paradox is trotted out because Popper’s final conclusion was we should tolerate intolerance up until it promotes imminent violence.

He’d be entirely opposed to censoring intolerant views the way most people think of intolerance.


I think everyone on the Internet has heard of that paradox by now, and it is always misinterpreted by people who only want their speech to be allowed.

Popper was talking about literal Nazis. We do not know what percentage of the numerous Twitter bans he would have approved (my guess is around 5%). We do not know if he would have been astonished by the fact that proponents of his paradox never use it against overt communist propaganda but only against alleged fascist propaganda (the bar for being called a Nazi has never been lower).




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