Holacaust Denier Gets 3 Years In Prison In Austria! (page 2)

nicolaou

Good for you for sitting through all that crap, it gave you the right to call him on it.

Good bloke!

Buster

So the guy is an idiot. But he should have the freedom to express his views - even if they are demonstrably wrong.

Unfortunately, too many Western countries have outlawed some very specific forms of speech and prohibitted some from expressing their views. If they can take those rights, they can take your rights, too.

Having laws prohibiting expression temporarily pushes the issue under the carpet. Austria may be better off with a better-educated public that could specifically refute the platform used by such hate mongers.

I wonder though ... It feels like there is an underlying issue that is not getting addressed. What is it about this holocaust-denial message that makes it so persistant?

G Money

Hitler jailed those with opposing views. The holocaust had to have happened as Austria had to learn from someone to jail those who expressed free speech!

I don´t agree with thought police. It is too easy to criminalise much more and thwart free speech or at least have a chillin effect on it.

Think

I am not surprised. There is no end to human stupidity. I meet a person, who claim that Hitler was a good man, and Holocaust never existed. They are the same DIRECT result of Goebels and nazi propaganda, taking "true knowledge" from evil liders. EXACLY same as JW Occult, taking "true knowledge " only from naziadmirersTower.

This guy was trying to recruit me to their sick nazi Occult. His brain was propably the size of a peanut.

But they still exist on this planet.

jstalin

Too bad, many European countries have decided what kind of speech is "acceptable." It's a slippery slope when bureaucrats and politicians decide what the politically correct form of speech is - and they have the power to decide who goes to jail for speaking out. I think holocaust denial is moronic, but they have the right, as human beings, to speak their minds. Europe really is still part of the old world.

Remember the old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Apparently in Austria, names (words) do hurt.

Abaddon

nicolaou

I don't disagree with your assessment of this guy, in fact I agree with you that he got his "come-uppance for spreading Holocaust denial, i.e. spreading lies." My only question is to whether he should be defined as a criminal for expressing his views - as offensive as they are.
The Watchtower preach that 6 billion men, women and children will soon be rightly killed by god, a view I have come to regard as offensive in the extreme but do I think that Watchtower leaders should be jailed .. for publishing . . their . . views . . worldwide...?
Hang on, I need to think this over.....

I think lies about something that did happen are worse than lies about things that could happen.

"we will make you millions <with small print>" is a fair comment. So to is "the end is near <with small print>". They couldn't be proven when spoken, are couched in ways that will ultimately evade responsibility. They're opinions.

But 'there was no Holocaust', could be proven to be a wilful rejection of fact when spoken - it's not like there's any real change in the evidenec for the millions who died in the Holocaust in the last 17 years (since he said it). It was couched in unambiguous terms. It's deception, or incompetence whilst acting in a professional capacity.

Different, or so I think.

glitter

Unless he was actually inciting others to commit crimes against Jewish people or others - then he was just expressing an incorrect and distasteful opinion, and it's ridiculous that the penalty for that is 10 years and that he got 3 years.

If you do any research into Holocaust denial, you'll find that such claims are incitement to those who accept them. It is a whole chain of spurious claims; that the Holocaust didn't happen/was vastly smaller, that it wasn't planned, it was as much due to disease and malnutrition as gassing, that the Jews deserved it for (variously) being Communists/controlling big business/trying to run the world clandestinely.

Those accepting one part are as trapped as anyone accepting one part of the chain of lies that keep any cultic group, or group characterised by toxic thinking, going. The first leads you to the last. You accept the first few and then suddenly Jews are wicked evil people trying to control the world, and 'something should be done!!!' It's an entire hateful philosophy that would ultimately sanction another attempt to wipe out Jews (or in its mutated forms, other groups), given room to live and breed.

All this coverage of the prosecution is just free publicity for Holocaust deniers - I wonder how many Austrians (and other nationalities) looked into the anti-Holocaust "evidence" due to all this.

If they want to hate people badly enough, they'd have found a reason anyway. Why not attack (legally, using the system) those who would gladly attack the group they are opposed to by any means they could get away with - and who do, many times each year. Anti-semtism, including violence is a problem. Ignoring those who make it worse is not a solution, 'Final' or otherwise.

theinfamousone

Beautiful, good for you.

theinfamousone

hitler was not a good man,.... but he was a mother fuckin genius... i mean seriously, how do you get that many ppl to agree that the slaughter of ppl opposing him was a good idea??? the man was a mad genius...

the infamous one

jstalin

hitler was not a good man,.... but he was a mother fuckin genius... i mean seriously, how do you get that many ppl to agree that the slaughter of ppl opposing him was a good idea??? the man was a mad genius...

I have to disagree. He was charismatic and he took advantage of the German anti-semitic sentiment which was already very deep in their society at the time. They thought they were betrayed by Jews in WWI. He took that and ran with it.

I'd say that he was perhaps a political genius who was benefitted by being at the right place at the right time. However, once he had the reigns of power, he bumbled just about the whole way. If you read Albert Speer's autobiography, it becomes clear that Hitler didn't know how to be a government leader. He didn't understand international relations - he had never even been out of the country. Militarily he was a disaster. He surrounded himself with buffoons.

I think Hitler was more of a product of converging historical events than someone who engineered his own fate.

minimus

I'm all for freedom of speech.....however, the law is that f one does what this jerk does....it's a punishable offense. Now, to the Austrians, especially, it is morally wrong and punishable. Good for them!

sixsixsixtynine

This isn't about freedom of speech.

Yes it is. Plain and simple.

He did not deny that Jews were killed, rather he disputed major parts of accepted history (i.e. gas chambers at Auschwitz, how much Hitler knew about the killings, etc.). He also admitted that he no longer believed many of the things he said, in the 1989 speech that he was tried for.

I don't agree with his views on the subject, but I don't find it anymore offensive that the bullshit history I was taught in school.

It's ridiculous that he's being jailed for this.

Holacaust Denier Gets 3 Years In Prison In Austria!

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