These threads have a way of going round and round. No one ever convinces anyone else of anything, and just about everyone is incapable of ever saying "You know... you might have a point".
Miles, keep on living in your fantasy land. Words are words. Look up the meaning of "genocide" in the dictionary... and you can very well apply it to the killing of American Indians during the colonization of America. But you can also use it to describe just about any war, or violent conflict where masses of people of a specific race or ethnic group die. Words are words.
Bottom line is this: Nazi Germans lined up Jews (yes... and other unfortunate souls who were born inferior according to Hitler) by the millions, and herded them single file into gas chambers. Four million... one million... whatever. There were a BUNCH of senseless deaths. If lowering the number down to one million makes you feel better, knock yourself out. These human beings were not in battle... they were not armed. They were so many men, women and children who were summarily exterminated.
By contrast, the American Indians, as has been explained to you half a dozen times at least, died over the course of many, many years. Many died in battle... many died of disease. To compare one event with the other is beyond stupidity. And whether you admit it or not, all your arguments carry this tired, old agenda you've been pushing since Day One, about the U.S. being this evil empire and whatnot. I have tried to use reason with you, admitting that the U.S.'s international policies are not always correct... and they tend to intervene where they don't belong. I've even agreed that the use of drones does more harm than good (when you put things in their proper perspective). But to no avail. To you, anyone who doesn't believe in this "evil empire" shit like you do, is not worth arguing with.
So carry on.
Miles, there you go again denying a widely accepted figure. Your opening post used the revised Auschwitz figure as though that discredited the scale of the holocaust itself. If you had no agenda and were interested in a openminded discussion you would have acknowledged my post in which I pointed out that the Polish communists under pressure from Russia were responsible for the original inaccurate figure. Nothing to do with a Jewish conspiracy and yet this is the crux of the argument for most deniers. You obviously post a thread for effect and then jump back in again with no interest in any opinion that does differs from your own. You stifle debate and strangle discourse whilst accusing everyone else of using your own methods.
The 6 million sum is more likely than not a myth. Even conservative historians readily concede that murder was not the leading cause of deaths in concentration camps. If you are to say that disease and hunger were also part of the death toll, then you can raise it to around 5.1 as someone such as Hilberg does, but likewise you must also accept that in the case of the North American holocaust, the death tolls are also very high. Murder in north America is also less than the death toll inflicted by hunger and disease. Combined the numbers go up an awful lot. In the case of the European holocaust people like to play up the numbers, in the American holocaust people like to do the opposite. I guess the people writing the history do it from the winners and losers point of view.
It isn't denial to accept that an event took place. It also isn't denial to suggest that traditional numbers are exagerrated. Nobody seriously believes that 6 million Jews were killed. It fails to factor in emigration that had taken place for a start. Confessions obtained at Nuremberg were from men who had been kept in conditions such as those that prisoners in Iraq were forced to endure. You cannot take at value the confessions of tortured men. Most would accept that. And to then accept those numbers as the official take on lost lives is a bit daft.
You know what miles, I don't think they killed enough Jews....let's 'ave another crack shall we?
I’m a numbers guy, and since all arguments against Miles are falling on deaf ears, I’ve decided to provide the following table, in a last-ditch effort to appease Miles:
# of Deaths.......................Type of Event
1-3..................................Homicide
4-50................................Massacre
51-500.............................FUCKING Massacre
501-1,000.........................Almost Genocide
1,001-10,000.....................Genocide
10,001-50,000...................FUCKING Genocide
50,001-500,000.................Almost Holocaust
500,001-2,000,000.............Holocaust
2,000,001 and up...............FUCKING Holocaust
Causes of Deaths......................Type of Event
75% to 100% by murder.............Apply table above
50% to 74% by murder...............Reduce by one category
25% to 49% by murder...............Reduce by two categories
1% to 24% by murder.................Forget the whole thing
Perpetrators...............................Type of Event
100% U.S................................... Increase by two categories
50% U.S., 50% UK and/or Israel...... Increase by one category
50% U.S./UK/Israel, 50% others...... Leave category unchanged
25% U.S./UK/Israel, 75% others...... Reduce by one category
100% others................................ It never happened
What's amusing to me is on one hand miles downplays the Holocaust and on the other hand he equates the early settlers of America to the Nazis. The problem is 100% of miles' sympathy goes towards the Indians and not the Jews or gypsies or whomever else was rounded up by the Nazis and this is a problem because it shows a distinct double standard miles has.
The Jews that died in the Holocaust...."meh, it really wasn't that many"
The Indians that died in the early years of America ...."Your ancestors were murderers!"
Is that hypocrisy lost on you miles?
Im sure there is another extra 6 million we dont even know about...who knows!
Hitler hated jews and killing one was more than enough.
Like Chomsky Miles you are suffering from a severe case of hypocrisy. You have the gall to speak of unspeakably evil people being under duress whilst ignoring the hateful behaviour they exhibited. Your sympathy for people is very selective and seems not to include anybody who was not wronged by America, Britain or Israel. None of your indignation is saved for the French or Chinese who sold more weapons to Iraq than anyone else, who carried out atrocities in Africa and in the case of China still imprison without due process. No anger at Iran or the Taliban in Afghanistan for murdering, raping and maiming women. Do you also share Noam's views on Cambodia?
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