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Sat Mar 19, 2016, 10:20 PM

Trump's inciting his supporters to violence reminds me of a quote from the philosopher Karl Popper. [View all]

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal."


Popper was an Austrian Jew who fled the Nazis and wrote this in the middle of WW2.

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Reply Trump's inciting his supporters to violence reminds me of a quote from the philosopher Karl Popper. [View all]
Odin2005 Mar 2016 OP
Elmergantry Mar 2016 #1
Jenny_92808 Mar 2016 #2
Fairgo Mar 2016 #3
Chitown Kev Mar 2016 #4
Festivito Mar 2016 #5
Rebkeh Mar 2016 #9
tblue37 Mar 2016 #6
rusty quoin Mar 2016 #7
Rebkeh Mar 2016 #8
leveymg Mar 2016 #10
Jim Lane Mar 2016 #11