Austria sentences Irving to 3 years

This is an incredibly stupid story all the way around. First of all, I've never understood these holocaust denial people. What kind of evidence do they need, exactly? When there are still people around that remember what happened, it shouldn't be much of a debate. In a hundred years or so, I could understand how people might be more skeptical of any given historical subject. But now? I don't get it. Also, though, I don't get the people who get all upset about people who deny the holocaust. While I recognize that if everyone shared their views, they would effectively be changing history for future generations, I don't see any evidence to suggest that there is much chance of that happening. Anytime I see anything about one of these people, it's mostly just to dismiss them as crackpots. So, I'm not sure why any one person's opinion of anything would be something to get so worked up over, especially to the point of passing laws against it, even if it is something of such importance. It also seems a bit odd to me that anyone so profoundly affected by a facist dictatorship that they would even want to make this law, wouldn't be able to see the irony before they actually passed the law. You can't force people to think a certain way, nor should you. silencing them just makes it look like there's something to what they're saying that you don't want people to hear. the best way to make sure people come to the proper conclusions is to let them hear all the evidence, even if it doesn't support the right conclusion.