Don’t Blame Free Speech for Extremism

“Free speech does not enable extremism. Quite the contrary: It is the primary means to challenge wrongheaded attitudes, ideologies, and belief systems.”

As the 2020 U.S. election approaches, tech companies continue to struggle with the problems of “hate speech” and disinformation on their platforms. With high-profile incidents of political street violence and ominous warnings of more to come, many well-intentioned people have appealed to the “paradox of tolerance”—the idea that a tolerant society should tolerate everything except intolerance itself—as a rationale for silencing certain intolerant ideologies and beliefs.

Philosopher Karl Popper first coined the concept, writing that “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,” Popper reasoned.

While this makes some sense, this idea must be examined in context. (Jason Kuznicki’s analysis of the full quotation is worth reading.) For starters, the paradox was a musing footnote from Popper’s famed magnum opus The Open Society and its Enemies, a full-throated defense of liberal democracy, pluralism, and genuine tolerance. Nowhere in this book (and at no other time) did Popper ever advocate for “hate speech” laws or offer support for today’s illiberal “cancel culture.” It almost goes without saying that Popper devoted his whole life to resisting tyranny and would be appalled to see would-be authoritarians twist his words to rationalize censorship.