Saturday, April 25, 2009
This is Why Even the Best of Europe is Second Rate
On Friday, former Democrat Klan leader David Dukes was arrested in Prague on suspicion of Holocaust denial. Some people will cheer this news. I think it's awful. I know the National Socialists murdered, on an industrial scale, about 6 million Jews, 2 million Poles, .2 million Gypsies und so weiter during WWII; and only evil or stupid people deny that obvious and well documented historical fact. But you defeat fools and frauds with counter argument, with the truth; not by silencing them with what borders on Orwellian thought crime. We here in America don't yet punish people for mere historical disagreement. The 1st Amendment would make that difficult in any case.
Protecting nearly all speech from criminal prosecution is the better way to go, and the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe would be well served to follow our example. Protest the Holocaust Deniers, scorn them, laugh at them, and show them they are wrong; but don't jail them.
After Dukes left the Klan, he switched parties to become first a Populist and then a Republican (cold shiver down my spine), he served, for a short time, as a state Representative in Louisiana but the Republicans soon thereafter repudiated his new party affiliation and he was never even close to successful as a Republican candidate for statewide or nationwide office, thank the Lord.
UPDATE: They did not incarcerate Dukes in preparation for a holocaust denial trial, they just put him on a plane out of the Czech Republic. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. You can say what you want, just don't say it here. I'm OK with countries picking and choosing who can come in. I wish we did that with a little more dilligence here.
Protecting nearly all speech from criminal prosecution is the better way to go, and the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe would be well served to follow our example. Protest the Holocaust Deniers, scorn them, laugh at them, and show them they are wrong; but don't jail them.
After Dukes left the Klan, he switched parties to become first a Populist and then a Republican (cold shiver down my spine), he served, for a short time, as a state Representative in Louisiana but the Republicans soon thereafter repudiated his new party affiliation and he was never even close to successful as a Republican candidate for statewide or nationwide office, thank the Lord.
UPDATE: They did not incarcerate Dukes in preparation for a holocaust denial trial, they just put him on a plane out of the Czech Republic. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. You can say what you want, just don't say it here. I'm OK with countries picking and choosing who can come in. I wish we did that with a little more dilligence here.
Labels: David Dukes; Holocaust Denial
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:26 AM 
