Holocaust Deniers And Name Calling Judges

[R. S. Martin]

This is brought over from upstarter's thread on This Site Needs A Glossary. I don't really know if it will go anywhere but I wanted to comment and it's too far off-topic so I'll start a new thread.

 

I'll offer one in anticipation. Creationist: Someone who denies the evidence offered from every field of science supporting the Theory of Evolution in favor of an unsupported religious assumption as to the origins of life. Another term would be Evolution Denier (compare with Holocaust Denier).

 

I don't know if this is the right place to ask or not--I keep hearing about people who deny the Holocaust but who are they or what is their argument for denying?

 

I never knew or heard too much about the Holocaust until I was in university but I never heard anyone denying it.

 

I guess you were still in OOM land when Ernst Zundel was on trial in Canada. It was a very big deal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Zundel

 

Thanks for the link. I read the article. According to the dates, a lot of this happened while I was taking courses. Probably people just assumed everyone knew what was being referred to and I didn't ask. The thing is I don't follow the news.

 

I want to do a bit more research on this and get a better handle on why anyone would deny the holocaust. This article did provide a suggestion. I'll copy it below. It quotes the German judge. My German isn't all that good but I did get that he called Zundel a person who poisons wells. (It is followed by an English translation but I didn't know that when I started reading it.) Since Zundel was not charged with anything remotely connected with poison and wells I knew that this must be metaphorical. I was shocked to know that such name-calling was used in a public and official position that is supposed to be respected by the public. That may be the point. Here's the quote:

 

The judge in his emotional closing speech called Zündel an „Brunnenvergifter und Brandstifter, einen Verehrer dieses menschenverachtenden Barbaren Adolf Hitler, von dem er dummdreist daherschwafelt.“, in English roughly translated "well-poisoner and arsonist, an admirer of this human-despising barbarian Adolf Hitler, of whom he rambles on with brash impertinence". It is believed that the Holocaust deniers are using this process and the coming revisions to show that freedom of speech was impaired in Germany depending on the ideology of the speaker.^[29]

 

I don't know if a Canadian Supreme Court Judge would be allowed to use that kind of language or not but I have never heard that kind of language used in a public position by a public official in my ten years navigating mainstream society in this city.

 

If that kind of colourful name-calling is what is meant by "freedom of speech" then it is nonexistent in this part of the world. It exists on the Old Order Mennonite farms. It's rampant there. If no one blasts anyone with it in the first place, no one has to strike back with it in the second place. I feel much more at liberty to be myself if I can expect not to be blasted for accidentally stepping in front of someone by mistake. When I am relaxed, I am more aware of my surroundings and don't have as many accidents where I step in front of others by mistake. I think most people are like this. Thus, everybody gains and nobody loses.

 

I disagree that disturbing the public peace in Canada is the way to reform public speech in Germany. If the German government wants the love and respect of its people, not to mention the rest of the world, it might learn how to address its prisoners like humans. Some of the world's greatest psychologists came out of Germany, though the later ones I know about are from North America. If the books exist only in English, they can be translated. There is no excuse for anyone to speak like that to anyone--not to mention a man considered fit to pass legal judgment on another human being in one of the world's highest courts.