Having been fraudulently declared on Wikipedia by CIA and Zionist trolls to be a “Holocaust Denier,” I decided to see what that meant. I turned to Ron Unz’s article “American Pravda: Holocaust Denial.” Just as incompetent Wikipedia attributed David Irving’s views to me, no doubt Wikipedia will credit me with authorship of Ron Unz’s article.

Ron Unz is a prolific reader who provides reliable accounts. His article reports on books that promote the official Holocaust story and on books that have researched the Holocaust and find facts different from the official story. The best way to get your feet wet on any subject is to see what Ron Unz has to say. Unz, of course, is thorough, because he understands the importance of truth. Reading his articles is like reading a monograph. This one is 18,000 words. It takes committment. You have to really want to know. The alternative is to read the dozen plus books that Unz reports on. So, it is either Unz’s 18,000 words or a couple of million words. I suggest the shortcut that Unz provides. If it spurs your interest, you can start on the books.

Unz’s article begins with a map of Europe showing 15 countries in which any denial of the official Holocaust account, whether true or not, lands the denier in prison. https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-holocaust-denial/ I have always wondered why the story of The Holocaust, which has been used to extract billions of dollars from Switzerland and the German taxpayers and to shield Israel from its vast war crimes, violations of international law, and United Nations Resolutions (see Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry, https://www.amazon.com/Holocaust-Industry-Reflections-Exploitation-Suffering/dp/1781685614/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Norman+Finkelstein&qid=1575645211&s=books&sr=1-1), is thought by Zionists to be so fragile that it cannot stand challenge. A story that is true has nothing to fear from denial, as the facts will defend the story. If Zionists are confident of The Holocaust story, they should show their confidence by permitting their account to be examined and debated. The truth will emerge, and if Zionists are correct they will be vindicated.

My interest in The Holocaust is not whether it is true or partly true or false.

My interest is in its position as a dogma that causes 15 countries to imprison skeptics. Dogmas have not been popular in the Western world since scientists won the struggle with the Catholic Church over whether Earth or the Sun was the center of the solar system.

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For reasons of religious authority, the Church insisted that Earth was fixed and the Sun circled Earth. Astronomers said it was the opposite. Astronomers were at a disadvantage not only because the Church had more authority but also because everyone could see the Sun rise in the east, circle Earth and set in the west. No one could see Earth turning on its axis as it circled the Sun. It took imagination, reason, and abstract thought to see the process as it really was. Indeed, even today in the 21st century we still speak, incorrectly, of the Sun rising in the East and setting in the West, because that is what it looks like.

I mention this controversy not to imply that dogmas are always incorrect and, therefore, that The Holocaust is incorrect like the Catholic Church. What concerns me about dogmas is not whether they are true or false but that they prohibit free inquiry. Science, democracy, civil liberty, and modern society are based on free inquiry, free speech, and free thought. Dogmas are inconsistent with free society; yet, we have an institutionalized dogma, supported by prison sentences if it is violated. If we can have one unchallengeable dogma, what’s to prevent a second, a third, a hundred, a thousand? It is a slippery slope.

Indeed, we are already sliding down the slippery slope. For example, it has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to investigate the genetic basis of intelligence. All sorts of people can be upset by findings of various inquiries, both scientific and scholarly. Once we start setting aside free inquiry because it upsets some people, where does that take us? As I wrote in my December 3, 2019 column, “Can Truth Be Our Future?” https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/12/03/can-truth-be-our-future/ it takes us back to pre-modern time when truth issued from the voice of authority and served authority. We are a lot closer to returning to this pre-modern time than we are aware.

Another problem with the official Holocaust story is that it is so inflexible that there is no room for people who agree with it to correct errors. Suppose, for example, that German documents documenting The Holocaust were finally found, and the recorded number was 4 million. To publish the document would be risky in the 15 countries, because technically it denies the official figure of 6 million and thereby constitutes holocaust denial. David Irving, for example, found evidence that hundreds of thousands of Jews were massacred, but not in gas chambers, so his confirmation of Jewish deaths made him a Holocaust denier.

My interest in The Holocaust is not its truth or falsity. My interest is in the precedent it sets for preventing free inquiry and debate. Other topics are already joining The Holocaust as issues closed to debate. It is obvious that all sorts of interests will seek this protection for their agendas.

Unz got interested in The Holocaust because of an attack on the libertarian magazine Reason for publishing holocaust deniers. At the time Unz accepted The Holocaust story because he had heard it repeated so often. But the attack on libertarians as holocaust deniers made him curious, and he decided to investigate. This is what he found:

American Pravda: Holocaust Denial

by Ron Unz

https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-holocaust-denial/