Should there be laws against denialism?

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There are laws in some countries against Holocaust denial, but I've seen denial of many other atrocities that could also merit laws.

There's Armenian genocide denial, Holodomor denial, Nanking Massacre denial and also many denials of how bad the colonial empires of Europe were - that's to name just a few. There's many denials that go relatively unchallenged. I'm reading about the history of Renaissance Spain at the moment. I've seen people arguing that the Spanish Inquisition was necessary And that Las Casas was making stuff up regarding all those Taino who were killed and enslaved. I will admit that the Black Legend against Spain in countries like England was mainly politically motivated and that Spain was no more morally repugnant than other imperial nations, but I'm still surprised by how much people are ready to excuse.

That said, I do not support laws against denialism. I'm in favour of free speech and I think even hate speech should not be criminalised. Plus, the Internet is hard to police. I just wish more people were aware of how many different forms it takes.

Denial is an exercise of free speech.

ruveyn

Any how do you deal with the issue of people who deny denialism?

Yes

Ach Gott - now we are having yet denialism?

So we forget freedom of speech, if I do not believe in Noah's flood I must not say so lest I be guilty of deluge denialism?

So now we got to draw up a list of all the things that must NOT be asserted and all the thingd must NOT be denied, and nobody datre say it on pain of whatever we gonna do to hate-speakers.

And who would YOU trust - there is no one I woyuld trust - to draw up such a list?

And how long before we have a list of things which each citizen on pain of outlawry MUST affirm or MUST deny?

well, they got Thomas More.

Nope, why give someone the dignity of persecution when indifference is the most effective option?

If a government needs to put a law in place to prevent people debating a topic, then it should be a given that there is something about that topic that they do not want people to know about.

No, I do not think it is right to outlaw certain types of belief or thinking.

Behaviour is another matter.

While I believe that people should be free to believe and discuss whatever they want, I do not believe that they should be free to act on their every belief.

If you're going for denialism, outlaw creationism, homeopathy and anti-vaccine propaganda too. And I propose the death penalty for people who use the wrong word for loose/lose.

Ultimately what we really need is to outlaw stupidity. Everything else is treating the symptoms, not the problem. Have stupid people segregated, sterilised and/or shot. It'll bring about a golden age of culture, science and social acceptance.

People should be able to believe whatever they want.