Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance*

. . . And New Zealand today.

Popper is sometimes selectively quoted, or not always quoted in full. This is his 1945 statement:

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If people extend unlimited tolerance to those who are intolerant; if people are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant; then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them.

Popper did not imply that people should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies. As long as they can be countered by rational argument and be kept in check by public opinion, suppression by force of intolerant philosophies would be unwise.

But a tolerant society should (must?) claim the right to suppress intolerant philosophies. By force, but only if necessary. I.e. It may turn out that the proponents of intolerant philosophies are not prepared to meet a tolerant philosopy society on the level of rational argument and so denounce all contrary argument. The proponents of intolerant philosophies may even forbid their followers (and others, by shaming or "cancelling") to listen to tolerant, rational argument. They may argue that rational argument is deceptive and teach their followers to answer rational arguments with force.

A tolerant society should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right to not tolerate the intolerant. People should assert that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law. That any and all acts of incitement to intolerance and persecution are criminal. I.e. Such acts should be treated in the same way as incitement to murder, kidnapping, or the revival of the slave trade are treated (as criminal).

Commentary

Some people are prepared to abandon the realm of logic and reason, turning instead to violence. If society tolerates violence for the sake of being tolerant, the result is that the society is on the way to its own extinction. With the demise of the tolerant, the proponents of intolerant philosophies will prevail.

Therefore, in Popper's opinion, it is valid to suppress such agitators before they take advantage of and destroy the society that extended them the benefit of the free expression of intolerance. I.e. Effectively drawing a line where tolerance stops: thus far and no further. This is why countries which allow freedom of expression to a liberal degree, have some tolerance restrictions, such as outlawing the incitement of violence.

Further Commentary

That Karl Popper information is dated 1945. The era of the end of World War 2 and all the violence and destruction it involved. Since then, violence has changed its shape. It is now less an assault of physical force. We now have new expressions in the English language. Not just "woke."

Violence today takes passive (non-physical) forms. That involves today's prostitute media not reporting alternative opinions, including ignoring those who express them. (See "cancel culture," next paragraph.) Then, to denigrate any who have alternative views - said prostitute-media-fake-news-speaders - add insults like racist, xenophobe and xxxx supremacist.

Then there's "cancel culture." Approximately, that means pretending some contrary perspective and / or opponent doesn't even exist. I.e. No modern-day government-bought-and-paid-for-media will so much as mention a certain person, or their viewpoint, if it's contrary to the media's political paymasters' viewpoint.

Doing that means that the proponents of rational argument and the notion of public opinion are made to just vanish. If the public don't know about it, the story dies. And the rational debaters with it.

It may seem odd, but that's a very nasty form of hidden violence in itself.

For a democracy to function as it should, the free flow of information among citizens is critical. Hence the cancel culture tactic used by today's intolerant in New Zealand and elsewhere.

The 2021/23 NZ socio-commie government's action plan is simple.

Control the media
Control the message
Control the masses.

Click here to learn about the "Tytler Cycle."

Click here to see the 2021/3 NZ Government's closet communists - called socialists - taking NZ down the path of a communist Apartheid State.


* The "Paradox of Tolerance" was not a phrase Popper used. What he propounded came to be known and referred to as that, much later.