this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
60 points (96.9% liked)

stupidpol

147 readers
325 users here now

Socialism for sane people

founded 3 months ago
MODERATORS
 

https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/stupidpol/comments/1s8o0uq/are_they_purposefully_misconstruing_poppers/

In my time pretty much everybody knew what Popper's Paradox of Tolerance meant. (probably due to the amount of Germans who lived through part of this, or had parents who lived through this)

It's basically you can't be so tolerant that you'd "tolerate" nazis coming to every meeting or protest you had and killing - severely beating anyone there who disagreed with them. Which did happen in Germany in the 30's. Basically once violence starts challenging the state itself, you step in and stomp. However you let it get to that point because otherwise it's a game of saying who is the nazi. It's pretty clear in popper's open society, especially when you consider when he wrote it.

It's now meant to many young folks that you have to be intolerant of what they define as intolerance altogether - this is nuts, because you can include anything under this rubric. And including "any" violence. So you have a few shootings, oops that intolerance and violence and we need to censor everyone with this view. (hence stochastic terrorism and using that as a cudgel to shut up anyone with an honest view. or today using violence against a few random synagogues to shut up anyone criticising israel)

Is this a purposeful mistranslation of Popper, or what am I missing here? And do kids actually buy this, or is this just redditor-speak? The arrogance in the former, not to mention that assumption that one is "right" is ironically the mentality Popper was speaking of.

I know this is a marxist forum who probably doesn't even respect Popper, however I don't think his original thesis is a bad idea to have.

Pictured: carton 1 that's wrong versus cartoon 2.

I still can't believe that folks actually buy into #1. No wonder why they are so censor-heavy.

If this can't even be gotten right we're fucked.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] plyth@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Popper's paradox is self-fulfilling. Fighting people with an identity strengthens their identity. Their convictions are caused by something which most likely can be changed.

[โ€“] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 31 minutes ago)

yes, that is a pragmatic consideration that isn't covered in these discussions.

the paradox makes the liberal assumption that identities and beliefs are freely chosen choices. but that not true for many people and certainly not true for illiberal societies which are defined by intolerance.