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Comment by naasking | Hacker News Reader

> It's basic paradox of tolerance stuff.

I don't think you've actually read what Popper said about the paradox of tolerance. For your education:

> 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 most unwise.

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> as long as we can counter them by rational argument

"You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into."

Yes, you can always say that this time, Popper's caveat does not apply, because the opponents are too far gone.

Perhaps we should stop treating Popper or anyone else as an oracle of truths. He was a smart man, you can disagree with him nevertheless - in both directions.

> "You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into."

I disagree 100%, and the fact that atheism is steadily growing, even among formerly devout Christians, the admirable success of Daryl Davis convincing KKK members to renounce their own hate, and the numerous examples of collaboration for a common cause between groups that should hate each other, like the KKK and the black Panthers, all demonstrate that this claim is flat out wrong.

Instead, what your cute catchphrase typically represents is an excuse to justify your own hate for an outgroup. Often understandably borne of frustration from impatience to learn about or inability to understand the motivations or experiences of an outgroup, and a subsequent assignment of negative qualities to them, because obviously you're not the problem (the "bias blind spot").

It's not my job to educate you about why you're wrong, but only to raise my voice as part of the chorus saying that you are. Hate and your sad support for it will always be met with refusal. You are finished.

Not your job perhaps, but arguably your duty as a member of a democratic society where social change must happen by persuasion, since the legitimacy of government follows from the consent of the governed.

> Atheism is steadily growing.

> The legitimacy of government follows from the consent of the governed.

Here, your neckbeard is showing.

Insults are the last refuge of those who have lost the argument. Sadly, I guess you just don't believe in the UN's declaration of human rights or the principles behind the US's declaration of independence.

There's no argument here. Just reactionary noises pretending to be about "human rights."

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