General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: An exhibition in Iran will mock the Holocaust [View all]jobycom
(49,038 posts)Whatever the argument that makes your opinion "right" is irrelevant. The point is we have limits to our concept of Free Speech. Charlie Hebdo's cartoons were legal, so I'm not sure what point you are making by stating that a HD conference in the US would be legal, too. And the point is irrelevant, anyway. If you had a Holocaust denial convention here, it MIGHT be legal (it wouldn't be in many European nations, where people are imprisoned for denying the Holocaust), but it would never get off the ground for lack of sponsors and funding, it would be attacked by the media until people were frothing at the mouth, government officials from all levels would condemn it and look for legal ways to block it, any university scholar who took part in it would be fired and blacklisted (and since most universities are state run, that would be an example of the government using its full power to stifle speech) and I guarantee you there would be death threats and bomb threats surrounding it. MAYBE, maybe, no one would actually attack and kill anyone over it, but that's not a given. The only real difference between the way the West would react to such a convention here and the way some Muslims reacted to Hebdo and the various other cartoons is that HERE the government would be on the side of those who are outraged and offended, rather than going on air constantly saying "We support Free Speech and those offended by this Holocaust denial should just suck it and grow a thicker skin!"
So Iran is having it there, where our officials have no power, so we can see how it feels to be outraged by essentially the same thing as keeps happening in the West. Sacred taboos are broken, the dominant culture says "Hey, no skin off our noses, you guys need to grow up," and the unwelcome offended group fumes. Same thing, different nouns. Yes, the Holocaust is a historical event, but discussion of interpretations of the facts of that event are more closed off than in any other case I can think of. As someone who spent a lot of time in university history departments, I can tell you that no historian would challenge the current story of the Holocaust even if they disagreed with it and had facts to prove it (and there are facts to argue different points than the mainstream story), because they'd be out of work very quickly. It is a sacred cow in the West, and politics plays a big role in teaching and writing history. (And yes, I agree that the current story on the Holocaust is the right one, but I don't know of any other subject in history where even a discussion of alternatives would be so forbidden).
The real problem is that our Western culture values different things than many Muslim cultures, and we in the West don't have enough respect of their culture to honor their values. We are right, they are wrong, there's just no reasoning with them, and there's nothing on our side that needs reasoning with. That's our attitude. That's supremacy. And that--not the silly cartoons--is what was behind the Hebdo massacre.