Newsgroups: alt.revisionism Subject: Holocaust Denial = Hate Speech From: Ken McVayArchive/File: people/m/matas.david/holocaust-denial-as-hate-speech Last-Modified: 2007/04/17 "The issue of the Holocaust, in the form of Holocaust denial, has become central to the promotion of hatred in North America and Europe. "Holocaust denial is not just a current form of incitement of hatred against Jews. It has become the leading form of incitement of hatred against Jews. By examining Holocaust denial, we see who the hate promoters are. We see their techniques. We can understand their psychology and profile. "Hatred of Jews was the rallying cry of the Nazis. They incited this hatred to generate support and seize power in Germany. It became their justification for destroying democracy in Germany and invading the rest of Europe. The Nazi phenomenon was the individual hate-monger writ large, and like the individual hate-moneger, the Nazi organizations did not incite hatred against Jews as an incidental, detachable part of their ideology. It was central to the Nazi core. It was the reason for the existence of the Nazi party, and the motivating force behind virtually all that it did. Without the incitement of hatred against Jews, the Nazi party would not have existed, would not have come to power, would not have started World War II, would not have invaded and occupied continental Europe and Northern Africa, would not have destroyed democracy wherever they went, would not have killed eleven million innocent civilians, including six million Jews. "Contemporary right-wing extremist organizations ... have this one belief in common. They have learned well from the initial success of the Nazis. The incitement of hatred against Jews is a political tool for right-wing extremists which goes far beyond attacking Jews. That the road to power for these groups is whipping up hatred against Jews is illustrated by the phenomenon of virulent antisemitism in countries with no or virtually no Jewish populations. The incitement to hatred against Jews was and is, not just a threat to Jews, but a threat to peace, a threat to democracy, and a threat to all humanity. "The Holocaust, however, discredits right-wing extremists everywhere. Endorsement of the Holocaust, the belief that the Holocaust rightly happened, truly belongs to the lunatic fringe. Neo-Nazis well realize that they have no hope of building a mass movement or even significant support based on a defence of the Holocaust. "For contemporary right-wing expremists, Holocaust denial becomes a political necessity. Holocaust denial, for these extremists, serves a dual agenda. Denial co-opts the gullible into the extremists' ideology of Jewish fraud, Jewish world control, Jewish greed. As well, it legitimizes the very ideology which the Holocaust has delegitimized. "Holocaust denial is a particularly insidious form of hate speech because of its disguise as contested history. In an era of human rights discourse, upfront assertions of Jewish fraud, Jewish world control, Jewish greed find little or no audience, even amongst those who may be disposed to prejudicial views. Holocaust denial, at least superficially, appeals to ignorance rather than prejudice. By putting a thin veil of factual bafflegab over its appeals to racial prejudice, Holocaust denial caters to the desire for respectability of those who preach hatred and those who succumb to hatred. "While incitement to hatred against Jews has historically taken many bizarre forms, Holocaust denial is one contemporary expression that encapsulates the whole phenomenon. Like most hate speech, the appeal of Holocaust denial is not apparent to those not inclined to hate. Like other antisemitic slurs, Holocaust denial seems absurd to those who are tolerant and grounded in reality. The denial may seem to reflect poorly on the deniers and no-one else. How Holocaust denial may lead to the hatred of Jews needs explanation. "The Holocaust, the World War II, Nazi-organized murder of six million Jews and the attempt to exterminate the whole Jewish people, is one of the best documented events in all history. ... "One has to ask what Holocaust denial means, given this historical record. When a person says that the Holocaust did not exist, given all these court cases, all the monuments and museums, all the memories and films, that person is alleging a fraud on a massive scale. Obviously, if the Holocaust did not happen, the survivors, the museum curators, the historians, the librarians, the prosecutors, the judges and juries, the movie and TV producers, the reporters are not just confused or forgetful. They are lying. "Holocaust denial, by its very nature, is an allegation of massive fraud. The allegation of massive fraud is not separate from the allegation that the Holocaust never happened but, by its very nature, implicit in it. Some forms of Holocaust denial actively assert this fraud. Others do not. However, it is not necessary to say the word 'fraud'; the allegation of fraud is there even where it is unspoken. "...It is impossible to extricate Holocaust denial from this allegation of fraud, even where it is not explicit. "...Holocaust denial is a mutant of the standard, historical antisemitic smear that Jews control the world for their own evil interests. "On the descent to hatred, the largest movement a person has to make is the leap from the historical record to Holocaust denial. Once that leap has been made, the belief in Jewish fraud is just a small and inevitable step." (Matas, 58-61) Work Cited Matas, David. Bloody Words. Bain & Cox, Winnipeg & Niagara Falls: 2000
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