Skip to main content

In Denial

There is a scene in the movie Denial where the judge presiding over a libel case asks the question - if a person actually believes the things he is claiming based on some deep prejudice is holds, then can he still be accused of lying. In this context it was about holocaust denial. It was a satisfying movie to watch but this particular question gave much food for thought given the times we live in.  

There are people who believe that the pandemic is a hoax and living their lives based on such belief. The source of the belief could have roots in political or other prejudice but the person holding it is likely not lying. To that end, if they go around asserting their views and trying to create more awareness of it they would not be propagating a lie but the harm they cause in the process is immense. This review of the movie makes a great point about the absurdity for needing to defend the patently obvious.

.. no one would dream of asking Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin to share a podium or TV studio with someone who believed the moon landings were faked.

Yet in reality the author had to fend off the libel lawsuit by a holocaust denier and it was not entirely given that she would prevail. Her legal team certainly did not take this casually. Made me think that giving up on people who believe in conspiracy and hoax theories can do a lot of damage if these views get to propagate unchecked in acquiescence to their right to free speech.  There could be some that are harmless and even amusing but there are those that could be much worse. Context matters as does impact. As the author says in the final scene of the movie in the press conference - all opinions are not equal. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part Liberated Woman

An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no matter how flawed and imperfect. We have both spent over a decade outside India and have kids who were born abroad and have spent very little time back home. Returning "home" is something a lot of new immigrants like L and myself think about. We want very much for that to be an option because a full assimilation into our country of domicile is likely never going to happen. L has visited India more often than I have and has a much better pulse on what's going on there. For me the strongest drag force working against my desire to return home is my experience of life as a woman in India. I neither want to live that suffocatingly sheltered existence myself nor subject J to it. The freedom, independence and safety I have had in here in suburban America was not even something I knew I could expect to have in India. I never knew what it felt t...
111 comments
Read more

Under Advisement

Recently a desi dude who is more acquaintance less friend called to check in on me. Those who have read this blog before might know that such calls tend to make me anxious. Depending on how far back we go, there are sets of FAQs that I brace myself to answer. The trick is to be sufficiently evasive without being downright offensive - a fine balancing act given the provocative nature of questions involved. I look at these calls as opportunities for building patience and tolerance both of which I seriously lack. Basically, they are very desirous of finding out how I am doing in my personal and professional life to be sure that they have me correctly categorized and filed for future reference. The major buckets appear to be loser, struggling, average, arrived, superstar and uncategorizable. My goal needless to say, is to be in the last bucket - the unknown, unquantifiable and therefore uninteresting entity. Their aim is to pull me into something more tangible. So anyways, the dude in ques...
6 comments
Read more

Changing Pace

This blog has been a big part of my life for the last five years. Besides giving me the opportunity to connect with a number of interesting people and share my thoughts and ideas with them, it has been a form of daily meditation for me. No matter what the day threw my way, I made a very deliberate effort to find a little quiet time to write.The process of thinking about what to write and then the act of writing itself worked as an antidote to aggravations big and small. Five and half years ago, when I started Heartcrossings both my personal and professional lives left a lot to be desired for. The only real happiness I had was in being J's mother. While that was often enough to make me forget what I did not have, I sorely needed a third place to call my own and shape in the likeness of my dreams. This blog has been where there were no limits or constraints and that was absolutely exhilarating - it is the reason I have been able to nurture it for as long and as much as I have. A lot ...
25 comments
Read more