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I'm not sure if it's simply because of the political climate in the place i live, but the Holocaust is definitely treated with a far sterner hand than other forms of genocide denial in the western world, and by a large margin. In all likelihood it probably transpired very similarly to how historians think it did and the numbers will probably never be completely accurate given the chaos of the time period, but I'm more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt with such a large scale event. But I've found myself having to defend Holocaust deniers in Canada because of how draconian the laws have become up here. It has to be said, what is so special about holocaust denial as opposed to other forms of denialism regarding events of the 20th century?
Before you accuse me of hyperbole, in Canada there is currently active laws that were recently passed that specifically outlaw holocaust denial in particular, in public.Thats right, you will be put in jail for up to 2 years for any type of spoken "Antisemitism," including holocaust denial. This is absurd when you take into account the complete ambiguity that these laws were put in place with.
Now this would be all well and good, except this type of hate speech law is exclusively targeting this specific genocide. There are not real consequences for denying any other genocide. In fact, three years ago an assistant professor at the university I attended publicly denied the Holodomor as "Nazi propaganda."
I'm ethnically Ukrainian. Not only did he not get arrested, not only did he not get fired, he is still employed at the university. Call me whatever you wish, but that is extremely unjust. These laws are not developed with some sort of altruistic end in mind, and they are not enacted with the same amount of utility that laws against holocaust denial are. You should never be put in jail for simply thinking something. It is extremely frustrating, and it does not mean i hate Jews when i point out these clear inconsistencies and injustices with how these hate laws are currently installed. I find myself having to defend Holocaust deniers even though i do not have any real sympathy towards their arguments, simply because the laws against them are increasingly unfair, and have essentially made it illegal to think the wrong thoughts. It's not, and should not ever be illegal to think dumb shit. Holocaust denial is on the same level of believing in a flat earth or 5G cell tower conspiracies. But one should not be thrown in jail for believing in them. Much like your comment is suggesting, any criticism of this is now tantamount to holocaust denial, which therefore inherently means that I am anti-semetic. What now should we do in this situation?
You are simply in the classic conundrum of "my rules applied evenly > their rules applied evenly > their rules applied unevenly." I don't think poking at the intellectual scab that is the Holocaust is worth it, though, because you will never take down anyone by exposing them as hypocrites and you'll probably only tarnish your reputation for no gain.
I guess the one silver lining for you is that, while the Holodomor was historically only recognized by some nations, that needle will probably have moved thanks to the Russian invasion.
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Well, in the U.S. we don't have laws against Holocaust denial, and I would strongly oppose any such laws.
Every time this issue comes up, I see the same series of talking points. Yes, I think Holocaust denial is bad (and factually wrong). Yes, I think Holocaust deniers are anti-Semitic. No, I do not think they should go to jail. Yes, I think a lot of other atrocities get overshadowed by the Holocaust and shouldn't be. Yes, I think there probably is some legitimate historical research that gets quashed by the stigma of delving too deeply into the details of the Holocaust. Yes, there's probably a catch-22 here where you can't find legitimate historians who will touch it so the only ones who will are anti-Semites, so the research is regarded as illegitimate.
All of those talking points miss the point I'm making to begin with. You say you would strongly oppose these laws, and yet opposing these laws are now implied to be inherently Anti-Semitic. That is the real catch-22. I am not making talking points, i am saying that it is now illegal to point out certain legal injustices. There is not a proper way to handle that.
Yes, well, that's why I'm liberal, not woke.
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