[harimau777]

As I see it, a functional democracy requires tolerance of unpopular opinions not just by the government but also by society at large. I don't agree with these sorts of statements, but I believe that censoring them is harmful to society.

[zimpenfish]

> a functional democracy requires tolerance of unpopular opinions not just by the government but also by society at large

If you insert "some" before "unpopular", I'm with you. If you require "all" before "unpopular", then no, I disagree - e.g. people who believe "LGBTQ people should be done away" with, well, that's an "unpopular opinion" that should not be tolerated and, in fact, should be made anathema for anyone to express.

[PavlovsCat]

That's because it has other properties besides being unpopular.

[zimpenfish]

What other (I'm assuming redeeming since if they're not redeeming, why would we care?) properties could the opinion "LGBTQ people should be done away with" have?

[ivl]

This runs into the paradox of tolerance[1]. Net, when the things being censored are say, advocating for genocide, the harm they can lead to is much greater than not having people advocating for genocide.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance