Quote:
Originally Posted by plant-pilot  Some people, even historians have been forwarding their ideas of what happened in history for years. Even now some people try and grab any thread of a conspiracy from even the most recent events for whatever reason they feel they need to. We know they are wrong, they use flawed evidence and ignore counter-evidence when it doesn't fit their view of the world. It's always been that way and always will be.
It is their right to free speech even though we may call them loonys, misguided or 'flat earthers'. But they don't get arrested for it. Well not in a free and democratic society. Irvine and many like him are wrong. So are all the teachers who try and teach kids creationism rather than evolution, but they don't get arrested for trying to deny millions of years of the earth's history.
WW2 was about freedom from oppresion and the ability to say what you wanted..... even if what you believe is wrong, not arresting people with loony views. |
Firmly agree with this.
The man's slipped from a writer of a few 'OK' books years ago to his current self-inflicted status as a bitter fool, only right that people should deride Irving's distasteful views but I've never understood the imprisonment thing, seems to me a sledgehammer to crack a rather unimpressive little walnut which has the side-effect of lending him 'martyr' status among his nasty little tribe of followers and other conspiracy theorists.
Laughing at him seems a far more effective tool to me, education being (hopefully) somewhat stronger than legislation in most cases.
(And Owen, I'd recommend Dawkins's 'The Blind Watchmaker' for further insight into evolution to counter some creation extremist's DVDs)