One of the central problems of a free society is that people will use tolerance for evil. For example, if you support free speech, people will use that tolerance to say horrible things. If you support freedom of association, you get hate groups. Karl Popper famously wrote about this issue when he noted that open societies have their limits in his discussion of the toleration paradox.
People who face this problem often conclude that extreme liberalism and tolerance are untenable. They argue that it’s ok to use power against those they deem immoral. I have a different answer. Open societies have many social practices that can be used to curb or mitigate the hateful. I’ll list a few of them here.
First, you can have “bright line” rules. If people cross certain lines, they simply get ejected from the group. One useful version of a bright line rule is that people who advocate harming others should be ejected. Is this an abandonment of the liberal ideal? Certainly not. When most people advocate freedom, they do not mean, “you are free to harm other people.” They mean, “people should generally be left to their own devices long as they don’t harm others.” Openly calling for harm certainly breaks a liberal norm.
Second, free people should openly mix with each other. A bigot would likely avoid social groups where White and Black people openly hang out with each other. A related idea is symbolism of openness. If your space has approving allusions to out group people, it will also scare off bigots.
Third, make polite and open disagreement a norm in your social group and steelman arguments. Hateful people may occasionally use openness to their advantage, but they can’t stand it in the long term. Epistemic hygiene goes counter to people who deal in lies and half-truths.
Bottom line: Open societies have their enemies, but the good guys can keep the roaches out.
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Thank you very much for your insightful posts. I also remember your posts on Orgtheory. I especially enjoyed the ones on Why no Asian American universities in the US.