In terms of urgency: Darfur ignorers or Holocaust deniers---which are worse?

[jpgray]

They're both deplorable and ugly groups of people, but in terms of actual impact -right now-, I think one requires more urgent denunciations. The reason for this thread is just to say that while Ahmadinejad is engaging in extremely harmful behavior by denying the Holocaust, I'd say our government's hands-off approach to the Congo and other world tragedies has a much more devastating impact.

(dislcaimer: Yes, I do believe Holocaust denial is an extremely urgent issue. No, I do not view Ahmadinejad as the embodiment of evil. I just want people to remember that many Western governments are engaging in similarly damaging ignorance of real genocide.)

[DCKit]

1. Darfur is NOW, Holocaust can be addressed at leisure n/t

[treestar]

2. Darfur ignorers, since that is what is happening now,

and that for that, we have what we learned from the Holocaust.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Holocaust deniers are irrelevant and self-marginalizing.

However, the genocide in Darfur is quite relevant as is the larger human disaster in Iraq.

[jpgray]

5. I wouldn't say irrelevant, but I agree about the self-marginalizing

They remain relevant in the same way Ann Coulter remains relevant--to a point, ignoring the silly shit isn't always best. The KPD and the SPD thought the Nazis were too ridiculous to hold onto power for very long, for example. I think Thalmann's campaign ads went something like "after the Nazis, our turn." His dying in Buchenwald added some further irony to that. :(

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Anne Coulter is totally irrelevant.

And highly overrated.

[jpgray]

8. She's completely ridiculous. But ridiculous people can still be dangerous

And at times they should be confronted and criticized.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Anne Coulter is only as dangerous...

as people want her to be. The only reason she's in the news anymore is because people still give a shit about her.

[Jacobin]

4. but but but

Aren't those people in Darfur kinda dark?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Actually both... and I will tell you why

those who are capable of denying the Holocaust are also capable of denying that Darfur (or any other exercise in genocide) can and does occurr.

If the deniers were on the fringes we would not even need to adress them, but in some ways the deniers are also the ones who could and should send the help needed to Darfur.

That is why they are tied

[jpgray]

10. But many of the politicians fervently critical of Holocaust-denial don't do anything about Darfur

So while the two are very similar behaviors, I don't think they are as tied to each other as one might think.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Sure.

And they certainly don't do anything about Iraq.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. You are familiar with the history of the holocaust right?

The US government, among others, denied that anything was happening until the first camps were liberated.

There were survivors who came to the US as early as 1943 and warned of what was going in Europe

If I want to be nice... I'd say the US government was in denial (as well as the rest of the Allies)

If I want to be less charitable... well there you have it.

We have the exact same behavior right now. We know it is happening... we have the proof... yet we seem paralyzed and refuse to do a thing... and the same happened during Rwanda, or the killing fields of SE Asia or any of the other genocides that we have a historical record off...

So yes, they are tied and in fact the behavior is exactly the same behavior

[LeftishBrit]

16. Very good point!

[nealmhughes]

13. Holocaust Deniers are insane. Period. To deny documentary and living evidence is an act of the

mentally ill. To ignore Darfur is simply callous, xenophobic and the epitome of Ayn Randesque b.s. and hideous social Darwinism, not acts of insanity, per se.
Therefore, I feel that Deniers of the Shoah are psychotic and ignorers of Darfur in Crisis are simply despicable people who will reap what they have sown in tenfold.

[jpgray]

14. I have no problem with that. Though I believe politics and nationalism are also at play

I get the idea that some "official" Holocaust deniers don't really believe their own words on the issue, but make the claims for other reasons.

[LeftishBrit]

15. I agree that ignoring Darfur is more urgent at the moment..

but Holocaust denial is also dangerous, especially as it rarely occurs just for its own sake, but is generally used as an excuse for anti-semitism in the present.

It is indeed frightening that so many people are ignoring Darfur.