Just one fucking thing after another.

Apropos this discussion, Glenn Greenwald's current article "The significance of McClatchy's act of journalism"
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/09/guantanamo/

is exactly what I was talking about with the historical record as it is being written today. In the future, the New York Times will be treated as the Medieval Chronicles of England are today, every word suspect of bias and kissing-up.

MichaelRWall:
"Historians are always trying to make sense based on the motivations of "normal" consciousness, that history can never be accurately explained until it becomes accepted that there are more than one kind of human nature."

This reminds me of economics, and why their “rational agents” are so ridiculous. People do things for myriad reasons, rationality probably being the last on the list. I am sure historians, when reconstructing events, attribute rational decision-making to the participants of a historic event. Why? Did Bush invade Iraq for geopolitical strategic purposes, or because he thought it would be fun to be a war president? Was Edward II murdered due to a political power struggle, or because they hated him because they thought he was an effeminate ass?

Clockwork Smurf:
"Umm...exactly which stories of the Holocaust have been debunked?"

Well, I really don’t want to hijack this thread and make it all about me and the Holocaust, but suffice it to say, the stories I was raised with – and they gave me nightmares – about soap and lampshades made from human skin, is one good example. I was also shown pictures from textbooks in school of ovens from concentration camps with ashes and bones popping out. I was told Jews basically stood in line, and were thrown in the ovens while still alive. I was never told that the ovens were there to burn those that had already died. And we all know the numbers of Auschwitz victims have been revised over the years.

DCMediagirl:
"I would say that you're a real sicko and that I hope you don't have access to weapons of any kind, but having read your previous screeds I now suspect you might be a paid agent of the Saudi/Wahhabi lobby, a 9/11 "Truther" or a member of the Taliban. Maybe you should fully disclose who you're fronting for and who's paying you to post these letters."

Well, since you are in DC, and you seem to be fond of the media, this reaction of yours does not surprise me. To put it bluntly, you seem to have been brainwashed and indoctrinated pretty well. This is a good example of the politicization of history, and historical events: anybody who questions the Holocaust narrative, or its use as a propaganda tool, and who is a critic of the state of Israel and the Zionist agenda, must be a violent threat. I think you will do well in DC.

Nice strawman assertion - actually when people talk of Hitler at Munich they mean that when a raving psycho tries to take over the world someone needs to have the balls to stand up and put a stop to it before its too late. It's a shorthand historical reference that is pretty clearly understood.

Thanks. They've left such a bad taste in my mouth over the years that, apart from a few extreme cases so extreme I complained to Salon and they were taken down, I generally ignore them. But that's not necessarily the right thing to do. And when I get depressed and start ruminating on All That Is Depressing (really bad idea to do this) little crazy points like this come up and if no one has rejected or taken on the crazy in question I get depressed about that, as well. Even though I didn't do it either, myself. So - I just wanted to say, thanks. It's important to keep calling these people on their ... well, it's not craziness. The state I get into when depressed is crazy. This is more intentional. More wicked. It's ... well, it's lying.

You did not answer my question. Who pays you to post your dark and paranoid obsessions about Jews and their evil plot to advance the Holocaust narrative? You disguise your anti-Semitism as criticism of Israel Your letter about the Holocaust shows you to be what you are: either a dyed-in-the-wool bigot or one of those lunatics who believes the Mossad was responsible for 9/11 and no Jews died in the towers, "facts" that were reported in the Arab press. Many of their media outlets are also keen on spreading Holocaust denial that sounds similar to what you write. Perhaps you find their media to be a trustworthy source of information.

I wonder, by the way, given your hatred of Israel and your contempt for Jews, where do you propose Jewish people live? Obviously not next to you of course - I'm sure that would make you very uncomfortable - so where do Jews belong?

I wish I were getting paid to post on Salon – you have no idea how much time I waste here.

Everyone disguises their “anti-Semitism as criticism of Israel”, so I will not respond to that, because it is such a cliché charge. And your assertion just proves my point.

Where and when have I denied the Holocaust? I have criticized the Holocaust™, but I have never denied the Holocaust.

I find no media trustworthy – that is why I do read the Arab press, and the American press, and the British press, and the French press, and the Asian press, etc, because they all have their agendas. The truth is often easily ascertained once you know who benefits from certain events.

I do not have a contempt for Jews. I do, however, have a problem with Jewish supremacy and racism, which seems to always get a free pass in this country.

Where do I propose Jewish people live? Wherever the hell they want to live. Where do Jews belong? That is not for me to decide, that is for Jews themselves to decide. But the Holocaust does not excuse murder and terrorism just because the Jews believe they “belong” in Israel.