Having speakers who have strong opinions on the Holocaust to make a presentation about it?
Just to clarify, I would be extremely surprised if any organizer would have asked anyone to give a presentation on any holocaust stuff, that would seem extremely non-characteristic of everyone involved (I mean, maybe in a way that would allow someone else to challenge it live, but not in a way that would be an encouraged one-sided presentation).
I also don’t remember anything about this on the schedule, but all three events were unconferences where anyone could add anything they wanted to the schedule, and there were over 200 sessions, so I can’t rule that out (but like, anyone could buy a ticket and add anything they wanted to the schedule).
Thanks Habryka, I changed the wording a bit to make it clearer that I was not talking about someone literally holding a presentation on the holocaust.
Even though I used this hyperbolic example to illustrate that it does matter who you choose to present your ideas, it does have some basis on what happened at the conference as one of the presenters spent some time clarifying that the holocaust was actually considered a dysgenic event by top nazi officials (and thus appealing to the crimes of the nazis against Jewish people is not a valid counter-argument against eugenics) during a Q&A. Apart from this, the example is not really based on anyone specific in particular, and is used for illustrative purposes only.
I was at that session. My memory is that the presenter was very clear that the nazis killed other groups for eugenic reasons, and the jews for dysgenic reasons, both of which are generally regarded as part of the holocaust. The distinction was a bit of history nerding, not an attempt to minimize the nazis crimes, or to deny that the nazis were eugenicists.
If that is the case then the post seems shockingly disingenuous, even within the category of ‘denounce people for tolerating controversial people’ posts. It really seems like the OP was trying to let readers assume that the speakers’ strong opinions in question were pro-holocaust or pro-holocaust denial, especially given the post was also calling them racist. If those strong opinions were actually included their opposition to the genocide … well, what would the OP prefer? Speakers with mixed and equivocal views on the holocaust?
I was attempting to use a hyperbolic example that is loosely based on reality to illustrate that even the good parts of a controversial idea can be poisoned by the wrong speaker. Please do take a look at the main text if it looks better to you now?
For what it is worth, I do feel like the dysgenics comment was in extremely bad taste, and was clearly used as a defence of eugenics. Doing a bit of history nerding in this context was a monumentally bad move.
The person doing the talk most definitely isn’t pro-holocaust or a holocaust denier, and if this is what people feel like I’ve tried to say then I have failed to make my point.
Just to clarify, I would be extremely surprised if any organizer would have asked anyone to give a presentation on any holocaust stuff, that would seem extremely non-characteristic of everyone involved (I mean, maybe in a way that would allow someone else to challenge it live, but not in a way that would be an encouraged one-sided presentation).
I also don’t remember anything about this on the schedule, but all three events were unconferences where anyone could add anything they wanted to the schedule, and there were over 200 sessions, so I can’t rule that out (but like, anyone could buy a ticket and add anything they wanted to the schedule).
Thanks Habryka, I changed the wording a bit to make it clearer that I was not talking about someone literally holding a presentation on the holocaust.
Even though I used this hyperbolic example to illustrate that it does matter who you choose to present your ideas, it does have some basis on what happened at the conference as one of the presenters spent some time clarifying that the holocaust was actually considered a dysgenic event by top nazi officials (and thus appealing to the crimes of the nazis against Jewish people is not a valid counter-argument against eugenics) during a Q&A. Apart from this, the example is not really based on anyone specific in particular, and is used for illustrative purposes only.
I was at that session. My memory is that the presenter was very clear that the nazis killed other groups for eugenic reasons, and the jews for dysgenic reasons, both of which are generally regarded as part of the holocaust. The distinction was a bit of history nerding, not an attempt to minimize the nazis crimes, or to deny that the nazis were eugenicists.
If that is the case then the post seems shockingly disingenuous, even within the category of ‘denounce people for tolerating controversial people’ posts. It really seems like the OP was trying to let readers assume that the speakers’ strong opinions in question were pro-holocaust or pro-holocaust denial, especially given the post was also calling them racist. If those strong opinions were actually included their opposition to the genocide … well, what would the OP prefer? Speakers with mixed and equivocal views on the holocaust?
I was attempting to use a hyperbolic example that is loosely based on reality to illustrate that even the good parts of a controversial idea can be poisoned by the wrong speaker. Please do take a look at the main text if it looks better to you now?
For what it is worth, I do feel like the dysgenics comment was in extremely bad taste, and was clearly used as a defence of eugenics. Doing a bit of history nerding in this context was a monumentally bad move.
The person doing the talk most definitely isn’t pro-holocaust or a holocaust denier, and if this is what people feel like I’ve tried to say then I have failed to make my point.