February 27, 2006

Humbuggery: Official Truth and Categories of the Unmentionable.

Wretchard posts an amazing story about the arrival of the 45th Infantry Division at Dachau, which is a story by itself.

He also writes eloquently and clearly about free speech and the stupidity of Holocaust denial laws in Europe under which historian David Irving was prosecuted in Austria. The concepts of "official truth" and "categories of the Unmentionable" are just excellent:

But laws establishing "official truth" create categories of the Unmentionable into which subjects like the Jihad, feminism, abortion and Global Warming -- all the assertions, half-truths and humbug of the world -- will presently seek refuge. The best defense of the truth of the holocaust is an uncompromising commitment to free speech. Unless free speech is protected then some of the very evils Hitler sought to foist upon the world will be reintroduced in the name of fighting his memory.
"Dachau, 1945." By Wretchard, The Belmont Club, 2/20/06.

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