[Vision2020] Steve Wilkins on Racism

[Eric Engerbretson]

On Jan 30, 2004, at 1:19 PM, Steve Wells wrote:

> Did you attend the David Irving talk in December, Erik? Would you 
> attend a Fred Phelps speech? If not, why not?
>
> Irving and Phelps crave and depend on attention. As long as people are 
> willing to attend Irving's talks and Phelps' church, Irving will keep 
> promoting the idea that the holocaust never happened and Phelps will 
> erect monuments celebrating the murder of Matthew Shepard. They will 
> stop when people stop listening to them.

Unfortunately, I couldn't attend Irving's because of an engagement, but 
I wish I could have. I'm certainly less equipped to talk with people 
about the syndrome of holocaust denial because I didn't go.

And yes, I would attend a Fred Phelps speech. I would with a fox, I 
would in a box.

I would attend because I would learn something about people and how 
they can be duped into believing such baloney. I would learn what 
tactics those kind of people use to lead others astray. I would learn 
which of their arguments are especially tempting to the ignorant, and 
which aren't so dangerous.  With that knowledge I would be better 
equipped to talk with and help people I meet who might be under the 
sway of such craziness.  And as Sun Tzu counsels, I would "know my 
enemy", so that I could better challenge, and try to kill, his ideas.

I would also hope that David and Fred would have question times at 
their meetings so I could sock-it-to-'em in front of their followers-- 
maybe swaying some of them in their private minds toward the truth.  
Oh, I forgot, truth is relative.

I would love to attend such meetings because it would cost me nothing 
for some education, and be much more entertaining than TV.

Carpe diem,

Eric E.