Editing Openai/696b7614-10bc-8006-b70d-5688055cda78 (section)

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Popper’s core diagnosis—that open systems can be destroyed from inside by actors who exploit openness without believing in it—has aged extremely well.

What he identified in fascist movements now appears in:
* digital propaganda networks
* coordinated disinformation campaigns
* movements that reject dialogue while performing it tactically

The logic is the same; only the delivery mechanism changed.

Popper assumed:
* newspapers
* speeches
* parties

We now have:
* algorithmic amplification
* anonymous coordination
* global reach at near-zero cost

The attack surface exploded.

===== Popper’s distinction between: =====
* those willing to argue, and
* those who treat discourse as warfare

is arguably more relevant today than in 1945.

This maps almost perfectly onto:
* trolling
* harassment-as-strategy
* “flood the zone” tactics

Popper anticipated bad faith long before the term became common.

===== Popper’s insistence that: =====
* no authority owns truth
* error correction matters more than certainty

still underpins:
* science
* constitutional democracy
* journalism (in principle, if not always in practice)

This epistemic humility has not aged; it has become more necessary.