We have constantly said on this website that everything that is reported in the Mainstream Media is suspect and that there are a lot of important news stories that the Mainstream Media will not report, because they conflict with the Media’s agenda. We are all liable to slip into thinking that if some event is not reported then it must be trivial and we are all liable to be taken in by the spin used in any reported story.
Bearing the above in mind, I read last week that David Irving had been arrested and held in Austria. He was reported to have been subject to a longstanding arrest warrant there for having written and spoken on the subject of the Holocaust of Jews during the last World War. In Austria, as in several countries, to question the Holocaust has become a criminal offence. The Media report expressed no outrage over his arrest, though the Media is supposed to like free speech. The Media is good at outrage and orchestrating a storm, but is very selective in its topics.
I first read about Irving many years ago, as I was a student of political history and especially interested in the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. I had, and still have no doubts about the ghastly mass murder of millions of Jews between 1940 and 1945. Since then, I have also learned a lot about the equally horrendous mass murders of millions of non-Jews by Communists in the former Soviet Union in the 1930’s. When Leftist historians cast doubt on Stalin’s crimes, there is no outrage in the media nor in academia. Indeed there is been comparatively little research or publicity of the Communist’s crimes.
Hitler was greatly influenced by Stalin and his Party’s methods of repression. He is said to have admired Stalin, much as he admired Mussolini’s earlier rise to power. Those genuinely interested in historical truth cannot fail to see the parallels between the two totalitarian Socialist movements and the trail of death they created.
As I wrote above, I read ABOUT Irving but I never read his work because I was prejudiced by the way the Media reported it. I assumed he was either a crank or a charlaton. Now I no longer believe anything the Media tells me, so I shall read what Irving actually wrote. I may still arrive at the same conclusion. However, I regard his arrest as shocking. Free speech must be defended at all times and he is entitled to argue his case, just as Leftists take revisionist positions on historical events. I understand why many Jews find his writing offensive, but perhaps many Ukranians and survivors of the Gulags find Leftist historian’s works offensive too. Giving offence to some group is not a reason for abolishing free speech, though we can see why the Media Class is happy about it in selective instances.
Don’t expect to read much in the Mainstream Media about Irving’s incarceration and even less expressing outrage over this assault on free speech in Austria.