Not all opinions are equal. And some things happened just like we say they do. Slavery happened, the Black Death happened. The Earth is round, the ice caps are melting and Elvis is not alive.
Supporters of Irving have criticized Deborah for threatening Irving's right to free speech. In this quote, she explains why this is not the case. Free speech is the right to voice an opinion, but he is voicing a lie and expecting it to be treated as the truth. Free speech does not cover the right to deny that things happened when we know that they happened. Deborah categorizes Irving with those who believe that Elvis is still alive, or those who might deny slavery. It is not possible to lie about something and hide behind the cloak of free speech when doing so.
I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. I say to you quite tastelessly that more people died on the back seat of Senator Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz.
Irving is an anti-Semite and his video broadcast to his fellow Holocaust deniers supports this. He references the car wreck that Edward Kennedy caused that ended with the death of a young woman in the lake , which he was responsible for, and claims that this was more death than occurred at Auschwitz. He denies that there was ever an orchestrated mass extermination of the Jews and by belittling the experiences of survivors, and those who were murdered, He is making light of the Holocaust by making a joke out of it, and his supporters are making light of it by laughing at the jokes. By minimizing the Holocaust in this way, he finds it easier to manipulate the minds of his listeners into believing that it never happened.
Deborah : "What do you think, Anthony?"
Anthony Julius : "What do I think about what?"
Deborah : "My God, you love to be contrary.
Anthony : "Well, the man's an anti-Semite and a racist. It's like having sh*t on your shoe. You wipe it off. You don't study it."
Deborah is frustrated by Anthony because he does not want to spend time studying Irving or trying to work out what makes him tick. She wants to know what he feels, how the trial is making him view Irving, and what he thinks about her adversary. Anthony does not want to think about him because he is a Holocaust denier and a racist, who hates Jewish people. He does not want to give Irving that much thought. He compares him to shit on the bottom of his shoe because that is how he views him. That is all he is worth. He does not want to study him; he wants to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
