Letters to David Irving on this Website

Mike K asks, Thursday, November 29, 2007, what is the difference between racism and patriotism.

Defining racism

READING about these events [Oxford Union debate 2007], I'm impressed at the strange use of the word "racism" and its variations. It brings me back 2,300 years to Socrates who often annoyed people when he concerned himself with the definition of words. As everyone knows, it lead to his execution.

Today Socrates' fatal interest is called "topical agreement." It means simply that both parties in a discussion should be talking about the same topic.

If I buy a car from somebody, we should be talking about the same car. If I hire a man to paint my house, we must agree as to what is to be painted. If I want only the outside walls painted and he also paints the cellar, we have a dispute about how much I owe him.

As an historian, do you ever recall that when these people who advertise themselves loudly to be against "racism" ever defined what they meant by racism or why they considered others to be "racist?" I do keep up and I do not recall propagandists defining terms to any significant degree.

"Racist," for example, can mean anything from "mass murderer" to "village idiot." It is an insulting term becuse it literally orders us to avoid thinking about something; if we do not wish to be accused of crimes. If they really love "equality"; why would they forbid the rest of us to think ?

Mike K

David Irving challenges Richard Rampton QC at the Lipstadt trial Feb 3, 2000: "Would you mind explaining to me, what is the difference between racism and patriotism"?