George Will on David Irving

[William Joyce]

Here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401800.html?sub=AR

Good points:

What folly. What dangers do the likes of Irving pose? Holocaust denial is the occupation of cynics and lunatics who are always with us but are no reason for getting governments into the dangerous business of outlawing certain arguments. Laws criminalizing Holocaust denial open a moral pork barrel for politicians: Many groups can be pandered to with speech restrictions. Why not a law regulating speech about slavery? Or Stalin's crimes?

...

American legislators, using the criminal law for moral exhibitionism, enact "hate crime" laws. Hate crimes are, in effect, thought crimes. Hate-crime laws mandate enhanced punishments for crimes committed as a result of, or at least when accompanied by, particular states of mind of which the government particularly disapproves. Governments that feel free to stigmatize, indeed criminalize, certain political thoughts and attitudes will move on to regulating what expresses such thoughts and attitudes -- speech.

 

[Hobbit]

Here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401800.html?sub=AR

Good points:

What folly. What dangers do the likes of Irving pose? Holocaust denial is the occupation of cynics and lunatics who are always with us but are no reason for getting governments into the dangerous business of outlawing certain arguments. Laws criminalizing Holocaust denial open a moral pork barrel for politicians: Many groups can be pandered to with speech restrictions. Why not a law regulating speech about slavery? Or Stalin's crimes?

...

American legislators, using the criminal law for moral exhibitionism, enact "hate crime" laws. Hate crimes are, in effect, thought crimes. Hate-crime laws mandate enhanced punishments for crimes committed as a result of, or at least when accompanied by, particular states of mind of which the government particularly disapproves. Governments that feel free to stigmatize, indeed criminalize, certain political thoughts and attitudes will move on to regulating what expresses such thoughts and attitudes -- speech.

Hate crime laws are retarded, as if the motivation for the crime changes the crime itself. Even the name's stupid. I mean, aren't pretty much all violent crimes hate crimes?

Denying the Holocaust should be considered an ignorant, if not hateful, but totally legal act. If I don't like hearing somebody, I deny them my funds. That's free enterprise. If I demand that that person be barred from speaking, that's fascism, the same thing that led to the Holocaust in the first place.

 

[William Joyce]

If the Holocaust happened as alleged in every respect, why the need to make alternative views criminal, I wonder? Could it be that so much is riding on something that's exaggerated? The Holocaust story is pretty much what justifies the existence of Israel --- and causes folks to look the other way while Palestinians are put to genocide. If someone pokes holes in it, well, that could be bad for certain groups.