Bi-Weekly Discussion - WWII Revisionism & The Right

Details

This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Click on the link below at the scheduled date/time to log in...

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WWII REVISIONISM & THE RIGHT:
WHY ARE NEOCONS & THE POPULIST RIGHT DEBATING CHURCHILL & THE HOLOCAUST?

INTRODUCTION:

What you're seeing below is a blank discussion outline. If there's no title listed above for this meetup, it probably means I haven't decided on the topic. If there's a title but not much else, it means I've picked a topic but I'm still looking around for articles & videos clips to stimulate discussion.

If you see the topic and think it's interesting, please RSVP early since this gives me a general idea of about how many people will be showing up.

I typically try to finish up the discussion outline the weekend before a meetup, but sometimes I can't finish it until a couple days before the discussion. Luckily, I only ask that people watch a few video clips prior to attending the meetup and they generally only come to 30-45 minutes total, so even if it takes me until the day prior to finish up the discussion outline you'll still have time to prepare.

So what's up will all the X's below? Meetup's new format gives me a very short character limit that makes long discussion outline impossible. However, I found a way around it - by copying old meetups before the new character limit was introduced. But there's a catch, if all of the blank space isn't filled when I copy the meetup, the new shorter character limit will be applied, so I'm forced to fill up all the available space with X's. I know that sounds kinda ridiculous, but it's the only way I can still write up long, detailed discussion outlines.

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RELEVANT MATERIALS FROM PAST MEETUPS:

Back in March 2024, we had a meetup entitled "How Much Should We Trust the Experts?" that is relevant to the 1st section of today's meetup. In the Introduction section we covered 2 points that are especially pertinent: (1) everyone - including self-styled free thinkers & contrarians - defers to some experts some of the time since it would be too time-consuming to "do our own research" on every issue, (2) there's legitimate concerns about deference to experts when it comes to the more complex & value-laden issues that occupy history & the social sciences, as well as public policymaking - especially the foreign policies we'll discuss here.

Back in Aug. 2022 we had a meetup on the breakup of the "Intellectual Dark Web" (IDW) entitled "What Is Responsible Heterodoxy?" We considered the development of "heterodox" intellectual spaces in recent years and the debates around why some members of the IDW have arguably become grifters after falling prey to "reflexive contrarianism" and "audience capture" - this is also relevant to the 1st section of today's meetup.

Back in Jan. 2021, just after the storming of the Capitol on 1/6, the Skeptics had a meetup entitled "Bad History & Our Political Crisis". The Introduction section that discussed the concepts of "bad history" and "misuse of history" (as distinct from "pseudo-history") and the 2nd section that looks at comparisons between Weimar Germany and modern-day America are somewhat relevant to the 2nd & 3rd section's of today's meetup.

The Skeptics also had a meetup way back in Nov. 2018 entitled "False Pretexts & Acts of War" that addressed some conspiracy theories about the sinking of the Lusitania that led to the US entering WW1 & the Pearl Harbor attack that led to the US entering WW2. Note that Darryl Cooper appears to be drawing on Pat Buchanan's 2008 book Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War that argues WW1 & WW2 were avoidable and that we've been misled to think they were entirely Germany's fault, but neither Cooper or Buchanan allege that there was a conspiracy to use false flag attacks to draw us into these wars.

In the 3rd section of today's meetup, we'll discuss how current debates over immigration & ethno-nationalism are linked to the Holocaust, and it may be helpful to refer to a meetup we had back in Oct. 2023 entitled "Understanding the Immigration Debate" and a related Skeptic meetup entitled "Is Mass Migration a Crisis or a Moral Panic?"

Back in March, we had a meetup entitled "What Is/Was The 'Liberal International Order'?" and in the 3rd section we discussed the value of "Pax Americana" and military interventionism which is relevant to the 4th section of today's meetup. In the past, I've often paired our discussion with a Skeptics meetup on the "New World Order" conspiracy theories, since those are essentially a paranoid take on the think tanks & multinational organizations involved in promoting what mainstream scholars call the "liberal international order".

DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the recent debates over World War 2 and its relevance to modern day debates over historical expertise, the fate of Western civilization, racism & anti-Semitism, and interventionism vs isolationism. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about XX minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I've listed some questions under each section to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as whatever other questions our members raise. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN LEGACY INSTITUTIONS & NEW MEDIA ENTREPRENEURS OVER WHO GETS TO INTERPRET HISTORY:

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