🚀 go-pugleaf

abrodnik@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca writes:

> I completely agree that he has all right speak, but does he has right
> to spread lies? Somehow I can't understand this.

   I do, even though my aunt still has the brand on her arm.

   I don't wish to go into the philosophical question of "what is truth", but 
I do want to ask you: how do you know what is a lie and what is true?  You 
don't know it by the words of a story itself; you examine the sides and 
determine which is supported by facts. 

   I honestly believe that surpressing an argument gives it credit; if, in 
fact, the Holocaust happened, why are so many people trying to silence whose 
who say that it didn't?  My answer is that they suffer from pain, grief, self-
righteousness, and anger... but those who follow Irving have their own answer: 
because they are afraid that the truth, which contradicts their story, will 
come out. 

   I know that I am convinced the Holocaust happened, and I'd much rather that 
those who can prove it would do so publicly rather than try to silence idiots 
like the one whose appearance started this thread.  We shouldn't need to prove 
it time and time again, but we do.  The cost of freedom is challenge, and the 
cost of suppressing those who question and challenge is fierce, mindless 
opposition. 

   That pretty much sums it up: as long as our tactic is fierce, self-
righteous, mindless suppression of the lies, then surely we should not be 
surprised that the liars fight back with the same ferocity, self-
righteousness... and mindlessness.  The enemy is no more than a mirrored image 
of ourselves; let us therefore judge carefully how *we* react!

Geoffrey Welsh, 7 Strath Humber Court, Islington, Ontario, M9A 4C8 Canada
geoff@zswamp.uucp, [xenitec.on.ca|m2xenix.psg.com]!zswamp!geoff (416)258-8467
"Feel for the winter but don't have a cold heart" - Little River Band, "Lady"