Declan writes:
The problem is that if you create a rule that can be used to imprison the Holocaust deniers (a loathsome sort, I agree), it can be used to jail those who challenge the conventional orthodoxy, even if they believe they're right. More to the point, even if they *are* right.
The Holocaust has undergone a great deal of evolution over the years. I remember in the post-war years, that Jewish suffering during the war was a taboo subject. The Jews were horribly ashamed of it, and never spoke about it, and the most important thing people would tell their kids when visiting a Jewish family was, "Don't mention the war." The "great holocaust of the Jews" is actually a bit of prophecy from ancient times. Any big famine, flood, earthquake, or other major disaster over the years, which claimed many Jewish victims, was suspected of being this event. When massive attrition of European Jews happened during World War II, the holocaust meme merged with real events, and "The Holocaust" was born, and after many decades of concerted trademark-building now has name recognition right up there with the biggies like "Microsoft" and "Intel." The Holocaust justifies Israel's thuggery, extorts gold from Switzerland, and rationalizes Draconian anti-free speech laws throughout most of Europe. As the constantly varying repository of both true World War II lore, and wild rumors that have not yet been proven completely bogus, the Holocaust is its own operational definition, and tautologically incapable of being "denied." During the early 90's, the Holocaust came under a fairly severe attack by scholars, and was only salvaged by a quick purge of obvious nonsense by the Jewish Community, like soap, lampshades, and gas chambers at Treblenka. The Holocaust demonstrates that people will believe pretty much anything, if you dig up mass graves, and push the bodies around with bulldozers while speaking. And in a world where people are so easily made to believe that Saddam ordered 9/11, and that Al Queda was a Baghdad operation, the belief that 6 million Jews were herded into showers with gas-enabled nozzles naturally follows. It should be noted that even Steven Spielberg, when making the definitive motion picture about the Holocaust, cut himself ample historical waffle room by not showing a single Jew being gassed in a specific identifiable location. He contented himself with showing Jews nervously looking at smoke rising from buildings, being separated into groups, and experiencing anxiety based on rumors they had heard as to whether water would really come out of the shower heads. Regardless of what future historians decide is the truth about how many were gassed, and at which camps, Spielberg's legacy as not having made a fool of himself is assured. The term "Holocaust Denier" is hurled at anyone who questions even the most absurd insigificant detail of the historical record as approved and promulgated by the ADL. Much as the term "anti-Semite" is hurled at anyone who dares to suggest that some people who happen to be Jewish might act collectively in their own enlightened self-interest, or that Israel shouldn't run over peace activists with bulldozers, and then smirk about it later. The Holocaust has had some surprising victories in court, mostly because the Jewish community has spent millions goading and baiting a few high profile individuals who criticized it, and then used anti-semitic remarks deliberately provoked and elicited after whatever adademic work they were targeting was written, to smear the author in court. David Irving comes to mind here. "Holocaust Denier" is the neoconservative catch phrase for those critically examining the historical record and Jewish political meddling, just as "advocating the right of adults to have sex with children" is the catch phrase for all criticism of right wing sex and porn laws, and "Who is more dangerous to world peace, George Bush or Sadam Hussein?" is the catch phrase used to harpoon anyone who criticizes the invasion of Iraq and the Neoconservative World Order. When I hear someone being called a "Holocaust Denier", my reaction is not to think of that person as "loathsome", but rather to ask who is attacking them with an agenda. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"