On language

Submitted by j (United States), Jun 1, 2007 at 08:26

Opposition to Israel based on the idea that the Holocaust was a political event? It doesn't make sense, since the establishment of most countries was based on some "political event." It makes more sense to me to see Holocaust denial as a means of Arabs dismissing the horrors endured by those victimized by Hitler's "politics."

By neutralizing the fact of genocide and terror to "political", Arabs seek to excuse their own uncivilized conduct. Perhaps then, the goal of Arabs is to excuse the murderous actions of Arab suicide bombers and terrorists as merely "political" actions? Murder and terrorism are not to be dismissed as "political" even when they are used to promote "politcal" ends.

The language that seeks to minimize the Holocaust should be answered with similar language that dismisses those who put forth such views as "misinformed", "simplistic", and "uneducated". That's not namecalling, it's neutralizing the harsher adjectives that might be used such as "brainwashed", "ignorant", and "idiotic" that clearly come to mind with such stupidity. And let those "misinformed" individuals remember that while they have the right to express their views to some extent in a democratic society, any criminal actions they undertake that stem from such "politically motivated" views are neither mitigated nor excused based on the mistaken premise that the Holocaust did not occur.

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