On J.K. Rowling’s “Holocaust Denial”

 

J.K. Rowling, the famous author of the Harry Potter series, has been accused of Holocaust denial.

I am confident that she is not a Holocaust denier in the sense most people would use the term.  I am 99.99 percent sure that if someone asked her whether the Nazis killed roughly six million European Jews and millions of homosexuals, Roma (Gypsies), disabled people, prisoners of war, political dissidents, and others, she would affirm that they did.  

No, the controversy arose when Rowling objected to a Tweet saying she upheld Nazi “ideology around gender” because they “burnt books on trans healthcare and research”.  This refers to an incident early in the Nazis’ rule where they raided the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin and burned its library.  There’s some dispute over whether their target was transgenderism; Magnus Hirschfeld, who ran the institute, was gay and Jewish, so therefore already a target of the Nazis.  German courts have been ambivalent about the issue.

J.K. Rowling is not denying the Holocaust as it actually happened, but the Holocaust as used by today’s left.  She’s contradicting one of their main projects, the effort to cast the main crime of the Nazis as opposition to transgenderism instead of the wars of conquest, the totalitarian governance, or the hatred of the Jews.  (That last one is a particular problem, as it’s becoming a core principle of the far Left.)  Redefining Nazis as anyone who doesn’t want to castrate his kids is much more useful.  For them, Rowling denying this is a greater sin than actual Holocaust denial would be.

Published in Culture
This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 16 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Oh, for Cod’s sake. Does any word mean anything to the leftists?

    • #1
  2. Western Chauvinist Inactive
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Dennis Lapamedis: but the Holocaust as used by today’s left. 

    Wait, you mean the Left is exploiting the Holocaust to advance its (totalitarian) agenda??? 

    As I like to say, if the Left couldn’t exploit minorities to concentrate power in Leviathan government, they’d have no use for them at all.

    • #2
  3. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    As I like to say, if the Left couldn’t exploit minorities to concentrate power in Leviathan government, they’d have no use for them at all.

    And when the job is done, they will not have any use for them anymore.

    • #3
  4. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    As I like to say, if the Left couldn’t exploit minorities to concentrate power in Leviathan government, they’d have no use for them at all.

    And when the job is done, they will not have any use for them anymore.

    The new order will find a role for them. They will feed them, and provide them with lodgings. They will clothe them, and give them things to do.

    • #4
  5. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Barfly (View Comment):
    The new order will find a role for them. They will feed them, and provide them with lodgings. They will clothe them, and give them things to do.

    Until they rock the boat or are otherwise deemed useless to the state.

    • #5
  6. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    I don’t think the full notion of transgender (a guy really is a woman if he says so) was operant in Weimar but transvestitism definitely was.  Being Germans, they even had a formal bureaucratic recognition of that condition and a doctor’s note (probably Hirschfeld mostly) formed a “transvestite pass

     

     

    It was always a bit strange that the Nazi hostility to homosexuals was enforced by guys in very butch uniforms with lots of leather….

     

     

     

    • #6
  7. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    It was always a bit strange that the Nazi hostility to homosexuals was enforced by guys in very butch uniforms with lots of leather….

    Heh.

    • #7
  8. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Oh, for Cod’s sake. Does any word mean anything to the leftists?

    They’re like Humpty Dumpty, words mean whatever they want and don’t try to hold them to anything. These same people claim Israel was committing genocide in Gaza when the population doubled.

    “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’
    ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
    ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that’s all.'”

    • #8
  9. TBA, sometimes known as 'Teebs'. Coolidge
    TBA, sometimes known as 'Teebs'.
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Barfly (View Comment):
    The new order will find a role for them. They will feed them, and provide them with lodgings. They will clothe them, and give them things to do.

    Until they rock the boat or are otherwise deemed useless to the state.

    c.f. Jew, Jews 

    • #9
  10. TBA, sometimes known as 'Teebs'. Coolidge
    TBA, sometimes known as 'Teebs'.
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I don’t think the full notion of transgender (a guy really is a woman if he says so) was operant in Weimar but transvestitism definitely was. Being Germans, they even had a formal bureaucratic recognition of that condition and a doctor’s note (probably Hirschfeld mostly) formed a “transvestite pass

     

     

    It was always a bit strange that the Nazi hostility to homosexuals was enforced by guys in very butch uniforms with lots of leather….

    I cannot know how much Cabaret actually represents pre-war Germany, but decadence of that sort was considered dangerous in those days by pretty much every nation. Not round-them-up-and-kill-them dangerous but dangerous nonetheless. 

     

    • #10
  11. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    TBA, sometimes known as 'Teebs… (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I don’t think the full notion of transgender (a guy really is a woman if he says so) was operant in Weimar but transvestitism definitely was. Being Germans, they even had a formal bureaucratic recognition of that condition and a doctor’s note (probably Hirschfeld mostly) formed a “transvestite pass

     

     

    It was always a bit strange that the Nazi hostility to homosexuals was enforced by guys in very butch uniforms with lots of leather….

    I cannot know how much Cabaret actually represents pre-war Germany, but decadence of that sort was considered dangerous in those days by pretty much every nation. Not round-them-up-and-kill-them dangerous but dangerous nonetheless.

     

    Weimar Germany was way ahead of other nations on the pervert meter.  Berlin may have had more hookers per capita than Tijuana or Macao.  Writings calling for acceptance of every form of deviance (See, The Weimar Sourcebook), were part of a time of intellectual, political, moral, social and economic disruption. Hard for us to understand that Josef SixPack could get the idea that that Hitler guy has the right idea because somebody needs to kick a$$ and take names. 

    • #11
  12. Eugene Kriegsmann Member
    Eugene Kriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    The only holocausts that the left acknowledge are the ones they are currently claiming occurred. The one involving Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities never happened in their book. For them the term can only legitimately be used for the alleged destruction of Palestinians, Homsexuals (only in western countries), and transsexuals. By that standard, perhaps, we are all deniers.  We have to keep in mind that the left has developed its own dictionary of terms, and that it is subject to revision without notice whenever the whim hits. The one thing that never changes is their remarkable ability to project onto others that which they themselves are doing. At that they are masterful and a bit psychotic. It sort of fits with what I have been reading about narcissistic behavior. 

    • #12
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):

    The only holocausts that the left acknowledge are the ones they are currently claiming occurred. The one involving Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities never happened in their book. For them the term can only legitimately be used for the alleged destruction of Palestinians, Homsexuals (only in western countries), and transsexuals. By that standard, perhaps, we are all deniers. We have to keep in mind that the left has developed its own dictionary of terms, and that it is subject to revision without notice whenever the whim hits. The one thing that never changes is their remarkable ability to project onto others that which they themselves are doing. At that they are masterful and a bit psychotic. It sort of fits with what I have been reading about narcissistic behavior.

    “The future is known, it’s the past that keeps changing.”

    • #13
  14. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Oh, for Cod’s sake. Does any word mean anything to the leftists?

    No.

    • #14
  15. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    Misthiocracy has never (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Oh, for Cod’s sake. Does any word mean anything to the leftists?

    No.

    1.  Shouldn’t TedX be banned?
    2. This guy is a slob.  He goes on stage, knowing he’s on video, and can’t tuck his shirt in, or can’t even make it somewhat neat.  He also needs to lose about 40 pounds.
    3. He has discovered the shibboleth.  And that language changes.  Wow.  He’s brilliant.
    4. He’s quite preachy.  Of course there are standards.  Oh, wait, this is TedX.
    • #15
  16. KCK Inactive
    KCK
    @KCK

    If the pro-Hamas demonstrations are any indication, it might now be considered cool to deny the Holocaust.

    • #16
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.