From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Dec 13 2002 - 08:37:55 MST
Jeff Davis wrote:
>Lee,
>
>Two and two is four. The holocaust either did or did
>not happen. There is truth. All the sophistry in the
>world can't change that. Get over it.
>
Such an emotionally charged event as the holocaust is a poor thing to
pin this discussion on, but:
Umnh... remember that language is inherrently ambiguous. Something
happened. Some people call what happened "the holocaust". Other
people, perhaps having a slightly different definition of the word, may
not agree that the term applies (originally, I believe, that it meant
that instead of holding a barbeque, the entire goat/bull/whatever was
destroyed by the flames of the altar, i.e., instead of just giving the
blood to the flames, the whole thing was burnt [cf. hologram]). So it
is not necessarily an argument over facts (though, of course, it
frequently is: "holocaust deniers" generally means people who don't
accept the movies coming from the concentration camps as valid, a clear
dispute over facts).
Still, there's a big difference between "I read in the paper today
that...", or even "Today the president said..." and actuality. One is
history, the other is fact. I've seen things with my own eyes that, on
closer examination, weren't really there. It's one thing to assert "The
truth is out there!" and another to assert that we can both know it, and
be correctly be certain that we know it.
> ...
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