For those without a fatal attraction to the extreme, evil is uncomfortable to approach and examine in depth. So how do we best deal with it in order to protect ourselves and posterity?

Allegedly, Israel, Canada, and sixteen European countries have laws aimed at punishment for Holocaust denial. Well intended, no doubt! Those, who suffered untold losses during the war (i.e. the survivors and their relatives), are meant to be spared insults and humiliation, insensitivity and indecency — at least from those trying to rehabilitate the Third Reich.

The Holocaust has taken up a lot of space in public debate since the 10/7 atrocities last year. In the same period, anti-Semitism has returned with a vengeance, driven by Islamists and anti-Western “Marxists” (if that is an accurate characterization, given their presumed alienation from theoretical studies) in unison. However, do we really do the Jews — or ourselves as free citizens, for that matter — any favor by outlawing the denial of their genocide? Who would publicly deny it, anyway? Well, for a start, mainstream Islamists, marginalized Neo-Nazi freaks, and other anti-Semitic extremists (in bed with the Islamists), including homeborn and Third-World Marxists. In other words, sworn enemies of the “open society” as defined by the philosopher Karl Popper.

It is of far-reaching importance for our self-understanding and moral integrity as Westerners to answer this question: Is it recommendable to outlaw certain opinions on history because they originate from suspected malice and are pronounced by malicious agents against their better knowledge? On closer reflection, does it serve the true long-term interests of our society, founded as it is on principles from the Enlightenment, to silence its enemies? Are we not laying the groundwork for our own destruction inasmuch as we exclude certain ideas from public debate and thereby risk contradiction? It could be interpreted by the enemies of freedom as if we applied double standards and were hypocrites.

In an open society, we should never fear honest competition........

© American Thinker