[tbrownaw]

A version that might be harder to misunderstand would be that if the other side resorts to violence first there's not much reason to continue using only rhetoric.

Which even still isn't a hard rule, there's a few well known examples of remaining tolerant (not trying to prevent your opponents from speaking) in the face of intolerance (your opponents do try to prevent you from speaking) and succeeding rather well.

[mcpackieh]

The 'paradox' of meeting violence with violence is the most mundane "I'm 14 and this is deep" shit. I'm pretty sure this is not what people are actually talking about when they talk when they bring up Poppler's "paradox". The "paradox" is used to persuade people that authoritarianism is okay when they do it because everybody thinks of themselves as the good guys. The whole point of tolerance is that you don't meet words with violence, not that you should be a pacifist who refuses to meet even violence with violence.

[tbrownaw]

> not what people are actually talking about when they talk when they bring up Poppler's "paradox"

Yes, that's the point. The popular way of using it to justify starting violence yourself is not an accurate reading.