davefoc
Philosopher
Just a few comments on the poll:
1. I thought it was good that the OP encouraged non-holocaust denier thread participants to participate. One of the problems with polls around here is that they show up in a specific sub-forum so it is hard to get a feel for what the general JREF participant view is. In this case at least those who happened by were encouraged to participate.
2. I thought it was good that the poll used the term "holocaust revisionist". People who advocate some form of holocaust revisionism often object to the term "holocaust denier" so using the less charged term was better in a poll that was seeking to gather correct information about how many holocaust revisionists were actually participating in the JREF forum.
3. I think the OP of a poll should include better definitions of the terms than this one did. Several people that have occasionally posted in a holocaust denier thread wondered whether that qualifies as being an active holocaust denial thread participant.
4. I also didn't like the "holocaust denial is wrong" wording. Did it mean that the claim of people that the holocaust didn't happen pretty much as mainstream history records it is wrong or did it mean it was wrong (meaning unethical) to claim that the holocaust didn't happen? Of course, most people think its wrong in both senses so I don't think it caused a problem with interpreting the poll results.
Overall, regardless of what I see as short comings of the poll it was nice to see that overwhelming majority of JREF participants see holocaust denier/revisionist claims as bogus. I thought this was extremely likely to be the case before I saw the poll results but still it's nice to see your view confirmed with actual data occasionally.
1. I thought it was good that the OP encouraged non-holocaust denier thread participants to participate. One of the problems with polls around here is that they show up in a specific sub-forum so it is hard to get a feel for what the general JREF participant view is. In this case at least those who happened by were encouraged to participate.
2. I thought it was good that the poll used the term "holocaust revisionist". People who advocate some form of holocaust revisionism often object to the term "holocaust denier" so using the less charged term was better in a poll that was seeking to gather correct information about how many holocaust revisionists were actually participating in the JREF forum.
3. I think the OP of a poll should include better definitions of the terms than this one did. Several people that have occasionally posted in a holocaust denier thread wondered whether that qualifies as being an active holocaust denial thread participant.
4. I also didn't like the "holocaust denial is wrong" wording. Did it mean that the claim of people that the holocaust didn't happen pretty much as mainstream history records it is wrong or did it mean it was wrong (meaning unethical) to claim that the holocaust didn't happen? Of course, most people think its wrong in both senses so I don't think it caused a problem with interpreting the poll results.
Overall, regardless of what I see as short comings of the poll it was nice to see that overwhelming majority of JREF participants see holocaust denier/revisionist claims as bogus. I thought this was extremely likely to be the case before I saw the poll results but still it's nice to see your view confirmed with actual data occasionally.
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