Holocaust Denial

17^th September 2008

In some countries, denying the Holocaust is a criminal offence. I believe it is illegal in France, for example. In this chapter I will argue that denying the Holocaust should be legal. Now, don’t get all excited on me: I do not support Holocaust denial.

Here is my logic: if you believe that the Holocaust is a true historic event (which I do), then you shouldn’t need a law to reinforce this truth. The earth is not flat, we don’t have a law punishing people who argue that it is (and these people exist, they are called “flatearthers” and they’re interesting).

Suppose someone wants to tell everyone else that the earth is flat, or that the Holocaust never happened, let them! If someone writes a book about how the Holocaust never happened, let them, and then take them to court for lies and have a real debate over the actual arguments put forward by the author. That’s how it should be done, in credibility’s name. If you ban such people from speaking or writing at face value, you rob everyone of a debate that would prove where the truth lies, and you fuel some people’s ideas of conspiracy and injustice. Remember, justice is blind, and it is blind to stupidity too, but it concerns itself with facts, and that’s what should be focused on.

Backing up the truth with a law is in fact weakening said truth. Making a fool of yourself should be the only consequence of denying the Holocaust, and anyone who seeks to ridicule Holocaust deniers should do so based on facts, not with insults or comments about the mental status of the deniers.

I know there’s a difference between claiming that the earth is flat and denying the Holocaust. That difference is about the emotional side of the Holocaust. The problem is this: if you think the deniers are concerned about that emotional side of things, and try to purposely hurt people, then you tacitly admit that they are not concerned with historical facts, but have an agenda of their own which cares little about the truth. That sort of thing is punishable by law, and should be punished by law, too, but until you can prove that said deniers are in it for the hurt, they should be free to expose whatever facts they have.