
Anne Frank Center asks Facebook to remove Holocaust denial pages - deegles
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/09/anne-frank-center-facebook-remove-holocaust-denial-pages/
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josh_fyi
Note that the "Anne Frank Center" is a political advocacy organization that
simply uses the name, but has no real connection to the person beyond that.

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creaghpatr
The 'Anne Frank' Center needs to be put into context here:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/anne-
fr...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/anne-frank-
center/524055/)

>With just its famous name and a savvy social-media strategy, the Anne Frank
Center has transformed into a putative authority on anti-Semitism and American
politics. But it’s not at all clear the organization speaks for anybody other
than its own leaders—not Holocaust scholars, Anne Frank’s family, or the
Jewish community. Ultimately, by politicizing Anne Frank, the group may
undermine her legacy.

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patrickg_zill
They are just a bunch of grifters IMHO. They have no connection to the Frank
family nor to any other aspect of the Anne Frank story.

It is the same as if I started the Nikola Tesla Research Center (I have no
connection to Tesla).

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gnu8
Or a car company?

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patrickg_zill
Tesla isn't (aside from the EV evangelism) trying to speak in the public
square as a moral authority by using someone else's famous name.

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jedberg
It’s important to note that most holocaust deniers don’t actually think the
holocaust didn’t happen. They just feel like Jews “get a free pass because of
it” and want to cause problems for Jews as a response to that.

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growlist
'The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering
is a 2000 book by Norman G. Finkelstein, in which the author argues that the
American Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for
political and financial gain, as well as to further the interests of
Israel.[1] According to Finkelstein, this "Holocaust industry" has corrupted
Jewish culture and the authentic memory of the Holocaust.'

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_Industry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_Industry)

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antisthenes
But can that really be classified as Holocaust Denial though?

It seems like you could write any similar book about racism or sexism or any
other form of persecution and argue how it corrupts the authentic struggles of
that minority or group.

It is related, but fairly tangential to denying specific historic facts.

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lobotryas
By people who would do anything to discredit such a book? Sure.

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stronglikedan
> Denying the Holocaust causes harm.

I'm not sure I agree with this line, but perhaps I can be convinced. The way I
see it, with all the world's information in everyone's pocket, blindly taking
random social media posts at face value is what causes the harm.

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pduszak
The authors of the page clearly have an agenda. We all know the Holocaust
occurred, so why let a page challenging or attempting to rewrite history
exist? You're delusional if you don't think there are people who get all their
news from their filter bubbled Facebook timeline.

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8bithero
Not arguing for or against, just something to think about: By that same token,
they should also shut down any FlatEarth pages too... But then if we do that,
where is the line and who decides it?

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debacle
To the people who will say that Facebook is a private company, the first
amendment doesn't apply, etc: I get it, you're right.

These affronts to freedom of expression are concerning. It's important to
allow Holocaust deniers, Sandy hook deniers, 9/11 truthers, anti-vaxxers,
Christian Scientists, flat earthers, etc to have a platform, for them and for
us. You can't protected people from stupid ideas, and more and more we are
just forcing these people into echo chambers.

Ideas need to see the light of day, especially bad ones. The more discourse
and dialog (and not insults) we share, the more quickly misaligned beliefs
will fade.

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UncleMeat
If we truly have a marketplace of ideas then shitty ideas should be able to
fail in the market.

Denialism has already seen the light of day. Why must we enforce that it
continues to see the light of day forever?

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krapp
>If we truly have a marketplace of ideas then shitty ideas should be able to
fail in the market.

This implies that the marketplace of ideas optimizes for truth, which may not
be the case.

>Why must we enforce that it continues to see the light of day forever?

Either it lives in the shadows forever, or the light of day forever, but it
never goes away. With each succeeding generation as history becomes more
abstract, denialism and revisionism becomes easier to justify and accept.

After all, why are there more people who believe the Moon landing was a hoax,
now, than believed it when the event was recent, living memory? Because it's
no more real to modern people than fiction.

The same effect applies to the Holocaust. History becomes myth, myth becomes
farce. We forget the lessons of the past and we're doomed to repeat them. The
only thing the suppression of shitty ideas does is make the wheel turn faster.

