The Paradox of Tolerance

Online, it is very common for people to invoke "the paradox of tolerance." This comes from Karl Popper's book The Open Society and Its Enemies, but perhaps you know it better from a webcomic. I'm not going to link it. I'm not even going to quote from Popper's book. All that needs to be said is that the Paradox of Tolerance he (very briefly) describes does not give you an excuse to shut people down. It does not mean, as many imagine, "Oh that person has views I consider unsavory and bigoted, therefore they cannot be allowed to express them or be on our platform, etc." It means something close to the opposite of that. The "intolerance" that cannot be tolerated isn't hatred. Rather, it refers to censorship, especially that coerced through violence, with the understanding that the censorship of Popper's day was based in simple hatred rather than "anti"-hatred.