The article <a href="New Survey Showing Public Ignorance About the Holocaust Among Young Americans">New Survey Showing Public Ignorance About the Holocaust Among Young Americans</a> wrote the following about a survey about the Holocaust. <bq>The question in the survey asks respond[ant]s whether they "strongly agree," "tend to agree," "tend to disagree," "strongly disagree," or "neither agree nor disagree" with the statement that "the Holocaust is a myth." In the sample as a whole, only 7% picked "strongly agree" (2%) or "tend to agree" (5%). But among young people (age 18-29), the figure was 20% (8% "strongly agree" and 12% "tend to agree"). This is the figure that has understandably caused consternation. Some of that outrage is justified. The Holocaust is one of the worst events in all of human history and one of the best documented. There is no even remotely plausible reason to consider it a myth. Such claims are in the same boat as those of people who think the Earth is flat, or that the Moon landings were faked.</bq> The upshot is that too many people agreed with the statement that "The Holocaust is a myth." <h>Stupid questions</h> What a stupid question that is, though. So simplistic. It’s like the moron Congresswoman in a recent hearing who kept asking university professors to answer the question of whether it breaks the honor code of the university to call for genocide on campus. She equated intifada with calling for genocide, but demanded that they answer YES OR NO. But Congress is filled with idiots who know nothing of history or, indeed, of words. They are busily equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism—now part of U.S. law—and now want to equate “intifada” with “genocide”. They just want to punish speech, force mindsets, control the narrative. Most of them probably have no ideas why they're even doing it anymore---other than they're convinced that their self-preservation is inextricably bound up in it. They don't care at all that their stupidity is steamrolling things more worthy than they. If one is forced to choose an answer to the question of "do you think people should be prevented from calling for genocide?", then the answer is NO. I know, the question was more like, "Is calling for genocide banned by the code of conduct on your campus? YES OR NO." The presidents couldn't say YES OR NO because they were afraid that their answer of "NO" would be wildly misinterpreted. That was silly, of course. You might as well say what you believe because those assholes that want to are going to wildly misinterpret you anyway. Speech is free. Or, at least, it should be. Anyone can say any old dumb thing that they want. But the requirement to answer yes or no is utterly without nuance. <ul> Do you think it’s OK to rape someone? No. Do you think it’s OK to murder someone? No. Do you think it’s OK to kill someone? Yes. </ul> On the last one, most people would want to add some examples where they think it might be OK to kill someone. You know, so no-one thinks you're a psycho. YES OR NO. It’s the same with the question about the Holocaust. Is the Holocaust a myth? YES. Indubitably. It is one of the strongest, most enduring myths that the western world has. The rest of the world cares a lot less about it, understandably. Is it based on events that actually happened? YES. Indubitably. Is the juxtaposition of the Jewish Holocaust granted much higher precedence than the other mass killings that occurred at the time or have occurred since? Gays, Gypsies, Socialists, Communists, Cambodians, Congolese, Rwandans, etc.? Of course it is. That’s the mythologizing part. Was what happened to Jews during the Holocaust more horrific than what happened to everyone else at the time? YES. Was it exponentially worse? Debatable. Hard to say. Need more data. <h>History is not science</h> This takes me to the next part, where Somin compares believing that the Holocaust is a myth to believing that the Earth is flat. That is an utterly specious comparison. The Earth is clearly not flat. There is no way to exaggerate its roundness to make it seem less flat. The myth of the Holocaust has been carefully constructed over decades to be what it is today, with the societal impact it has today. Historical fact does not have the same character as scientific fact. The statements <c>2 + 2 = 4</c> and "the Holocaust was the worst thing that every happened to any group of people" are not in the same epistemological ballpark. There are many other slaughters and cleansings that have no impact on modern thought, like the Armenian genocide, the Nakba, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam. What the U.S. only stopped doing as recently as 5 years ago in Iraq devastated an entire country. Libya is gone. For what? No-one talks about that in the same hushed tones as the Holocaust, which was perpetrated three generations ago by the Germans. The one on our temporal doorstep, perpetrated by the U.S. — this one doesn’t get mythologized. Not yet. The moon landing is like the Holocaust. It is anchored in undeniable fact, but it, too, has been mythologized, the rough edges of actual history worn smooth to ease the retelling. I find it sad when otherwise intelligent people fail to see the traps laid by such infantile surveys. They are gotcha questions. Anyone with any subtlety of thought would refuse to participate in it, leaving only literal-minded and unquestioning respondents, eager to give the “right” answer. That shows the value of surveys such as these, to be honest. <h>You're either ignorant or a monster</h> Somin goes on, in his all-knowing way, <bq>Some people who believe the Holocaust is a myth really are anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, or adherents of other horrible ideologies. But many are probably just ignorant without being malicious.</bq> See? For him, there is no category of person for whom such a YES OR NO question is far too simplistic to express one’s position. There is no <i>room for nuance</i>. <bq>It is also important to emphasize that ignorance about the Holocaust is a facet of more general widespread public ignorance of history, politics, and economics.</bq> I wholeheartedly agree with him that people don't know enough about history, politics, economics, etc. As I wrote above, we should be lamenting the fact that U.S. citizens know nothing about the holocausts perpetrated by <i>their own country</i> rather than lamenting the fact that they don’t know about a horrible event that happened 80 years ago on a different continent. Hell, as Gideon Levy says, many—if not most—Israelis have no idea what’s being done in their name just dozens of kilometers away from their homes. Things have come full circle for the Jews residing in Israel. They have become that which they despised in the Germans: they sit by while atrocities are committed in their name. Their media ensures that they cheer it on, rather than trying to stop it. Americans are no less guilty of doing the exact same thing in they myriad foreign wars fought by that Empire. <h>Wild accusations</h> Coming back to the inquisition of the university presidents, the thing I think that too often goes unremarked is that people seem to so easily accuse others of wanting genocide, of having called for it deliberately. There seems to be no downside to making this accusation; the onus is on the accused to wriggle out from under it. Accusing someone of wanting genocide is pretty is a very strong accusation. Does it matter what you think you're saying? Or does it more matter what people think they're hearing you say? That is, are you responsible for shutting your mouth because some people will misinterpret what you're saying? You know, because they're stupid? Or just don't understand your language? Or they're disingenuous and trying to shut down any statements that don't correspond to what they already believe? I think it's perfectly possible that a lot of the fools I've seen recently would be completely incapable of understanding any line of reasoning I have, even the one outlined above.<fn> They would see no reason for nuance---because they themselves are incapable of it. Instead, we get the kinds of inquisitions that Congress is having with increasing regularity. From <a href="https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-supporters-would-defend-literally" author="Caitlin Johnstone" source="Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix">Israel Supporters Would Defend Literally Any Israeli Atrocity</a>: <h>That's a Whuppin'</h> <bq><ul>Arbitrarily declare that common innocuous pro-Palestine chants are actually calls for genocide. Pretend there’s an emergency epidemic of university students calling for genocide on campus because they use those chants. Kill pro-Palestine speech on campus.</ul></bq> <a href="https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1733230855878066673" author="Caitlin Johnstone" source="Twitter">That's a whuppin'</a> <img src="{att_link}that_s_a_whoopin_.jpg" href="{att_link}that_s_a_whoopin_.jpg" align="none" caption="That's a whoopin'" scale="75%"> <hr> <ft>I wholly acknowledge that maybe I'm not being as clear as I think I am, but that doesn't mean I mean what you think I mean. That's also why I hid this admission in a footnote, which no-one reads. Aw, who am I kidding? No-one reads my blog. I can be as monstrous as I like, hidden in plain sight.</ft>