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

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
    97·
    9 months ago

    I always cringe when I read comments like this.

    Interwar Germany considered Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and various others to not be “part of the social contract”.

    Reading your comment with that idea in mind: It is “not paradoxical” to be intolerant to those who want to destroy the contract. “Being violently intolerant against them” is nothing but acting in the defense of self, defense of German people, and the good of German society.

    The truly terrifying part is the inevitable rebuttal. It’s always been some variation of “Yeah, but my cause is righteous!”, as though the Germans thought themselves to be evil in 1923.

    The paradox is that Popper cribbed his philosophy from Mein Kampf, and nobody seems to realize it. Popper’s paradox should be seen as a lesson on the insidiousness of fascism.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      83·
      9 months ago

      I always cringe when I read comments like this.

      Cringes at my comments, has no problem with trying to somehow equate social progress and tolerance with nazism.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
        11·
        9 months ago

        They were pretty tolerant of Aryans and other who accepted the “social contract”. It was only those who “refused the social contract” that they really had a problem with. But we’ve decided that it’s OK to be intolerant toward those who refuse the contract.