On Sun, 21 Jun 2009, Michael Smith wrote:
>>>> You mean educated Iranians aren't themselves embarrassed by Holocaust
>>>> denial?
>
> Doug, you speak of "holocaust denial" in the breathless shocked tones
> that the proprietors of the Holocaust Industry(tm) like to employ -- as
> if it were some fearful crime.
No he doesn't. What is wrong with you people?
> Silly, yes. It's like being a Flat-Earther. But Ahmadinejad
> is probably not very au-fait with the European history of the
> last century. In fact it probably seems a little remote and
> academic to him. He does, after all, have other and more
> immediate fish to fry.
>
> His experience of hearing about the Shoah (a better term
> than Holocaust, if you ask me) is hearing it nattered about by
> his country's enemies. If he tends to discount his enemies'
> narrative, isn't this understandable?
Sure. But that has absolutely nothing to do with Doug's question, which is: aren't *the well-educated classes* of Iran embarrassed by this? For the very reason you say: that it's like being a flat-earther. Because it's so well attested *and so widely accepted among the world's well educated* (unlike many other things that are equally true) that denying it would make you look stupid -- and having the representative of your country deny it on the world stage would be cringe-making. Emerging country intelligentisia are usually pretty sensitive about such things because unfortunately they know all too well that the metropole usually only knows 3 or 4 things about their country.
It's also a question, mind you. It could be that they're not. It's an empirical question.
Michael