holocaust denial
Lopressor For Sale Loprox No Prescription Buy Propecia No Prescription Buy Online Cordarone Buy Tricor Online Imdur For Sale Zanaflex No Prescription Buy Amoxil No Prescription Buy Online Celebrex Buy Lynoral Online Motilium For Sale Femara No Prescription Buy Coreg No Prescription Buy Online Lozol Buy Melatonin Online Prozac For Sale Prometrium No Prescription Buy Kytril No Prescription Buy Online Cialis Buy Abana Online Casodex For Sale Mobic No Prescription Buy Himplasia No Prescription Buy Online Tricor Buy Naprosyn OnlineI don’t often support the VVD, the Dutch liberal-conservative party, but now I think its leader, Mark Rutte, needs a little bit support. He recently made the claim that perhaps holocaust denial should not be punishable by law. When it encourages violent in a particular case, it should be, for that specific reason, but when it is a more general claim, it should not be, because of our right to freedom of expression. I couldn’t agree more! If we allow only specific versions of history, and disallow other ones by law, we are way too close to a government writing of history similar to that in the fictional world of 1984 by George Orwell.
Right now, national clown Geert Wilders is becoming the hero of freedom of speech, because he likes to say politically incorrect things about immigrants, Muslims and the “Islamisation” of the Netherlands. We should be very careful to make a very clear distinction between freedom of speech and just being wrong. I.e. we should agree with Wilders that such things can, indeed, be said, publicly. And then we should go on and make clear why he is wrong or why his approach will only worsen the situation. But that discussion is for another day.
To be sure: I do think the holocaust happened and that it should be one of the most important lessons to be learned from history about what humans are capable of doing to each other.
1 comment May 29th, 2009