Whoops, hey sorry about all the smoke...
are you more distraught by the author's relativism or temporal fallacy?
I'm distraught by your mom, Michael.
she thought you were adorable. (if a little short)
Did 2 seem silly? I thought it was kind of funny to tease FL about his students because he seems to take these things quite seriously. It was also a bit of a serious question, though I now see that they might be difficult to extricate the problems from each other.
I vote also for "ridiculous understatement."
hey, the author said "huge", which is like "gigantic", which is like "a big big much". I don't know how much bigger you can get than a big, big much.
"The Holocaust is now seen as a huge moral mistake."
Well, yeah, but hindsight is 20/20.
I think the humor (such as it is) hangs on the word mistake. "I'm just sure we had six million Jews around here somewhere, but now I can't seem to find them. We did what to them? Was it on purpose?"
Hey, at least the student a) is conscious of Huge Moral Badness and b) isn't arguing that the Holocaust was a hoax. In this era, that's progressive thinking.
I'm becoming increasingly thankful for even the smallest sign that all has not been lost to the equal-time-for-opposing-viewpoints-even-
when-they-are-simplistic-and-historically-indefensible school of thought. My Offspring had a history substitute in HS who brought up the "alternate" view of the reality of the Holocaust; lord knows how many kids found it more comforting to decide it hadn't happened. Along with the moon landing and evolution, of course.
The kid has a future with the NYT. Just the right tone of above-the-fray judiciousness.