Linda McMahon's answer on Holocaust denialism should scare us

[applegrove]

Linda McMahon’s answer on Holocaust denialism should scare us

by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), opinion contributor - 07/21/25 2:30 PM

WH on Harvard civil rights anti-semitism violations

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/5410977-harvard-faculty-hiring-holocaust-denial/

Questioner: “Madam Secretary, does refusing to hire a Holocaust denier as a member of Harvard’s history department faculty count as an ‘ideological litmus test?’”

Witness: “I believe that there should be diversity of viewpoints relative to teachings and opinions on campuses.”

Had I just heard that correctly? Had Education Secretary Linda McMahon really just said Holocaust denialism was just a diverse view point?

I was shocked. But just recently, this exchange really happened.

[wcmagumba]

1. That is scary and repulsive...It is truly, "Springtime for Hitler" in the Trump cabinet...

She seems nice, for a Nazi...Un effing believable...

[pat_k]

33. Tragically true...

But you reminded me how good the Producers was. The 1968 version:

Although the 2005 version with John Barrowman and Nathan Lane is is quite fun too!

[Haggard Celine]

6. Excellent!

[littlemissmartypants]

15. Duzy!! 🏆🥇👏

[DBoon]

3. should the Astronomy Department hire someone who believes in a geocentric universe?

Should the Evolutionary Biology Department hire a creationist?

[DBoon]

36. I think that would be the Geography Department

[DBoon]

38. Good. I would never want to work for Trump anyway

[Shipwack]

46. I think they would be 100% behind hiring a creationist.

In fact, it will eventually be mandatory, if they get their way.

[dlk]

4. Opinions are not facts

If someone doesn’t know the difference, they don’t belong at Harvard, or on any other faculty.

[lame54]

5. Would she hire someone who said...

The WWE never existed?

[popsdenver]

11. Just another

Brainless Bimbo Trump Appointee.............Anyone who watches WWE is definitely a Trumphumper and has an IQ under 70.....seriously

That's why she fits in so well...........Heaven Help Us.........

[Gimpyknee]

14. And you know this how?

[stonecutter357]

25. lol she is just a Brainless Bimbo Trump Appointee !!!!!

[maxrandb]

9. But, but, but, but......antisemitism on the "left" is the problem

At least that's what I see REPEATEDLY on DU.

The Retrumplicans and the right aren't Nazis, they just think we should respect Nazi views...and when given the POWER OF THE STATE, they make sure we do.

[Beastly Boy]

24. Ummm... antisemitism is the problem.

Denying that the problem exists on the left covers up only half of it.

[maxrandb]

30. These aren't the drones you are looking for

Not a left appointed Secretary of Education!

Not a left appointed Secretary of Homeland Security!

Not a left appointed Secretary of Defense!

Not a left appointed Confederate Majority Supreme Court!

Not even a drag queen.

I will admit that the left has an antisemitism problem, as soon as the left uses its political power to appoint actual fucking Nazis to positions of state sanctioned power, like the Reich has done repeatedly.

Until then, you're doing nothing but tilting at windmills,

[Beastly Boy]

35. Do I understand you correctly? Is antisemitism contingent on government appointments?

I am curious, were you in denial of right wing antisemitism when the Obama administration was making the appointments?

Do your views on antisemitism regularly change with each new administration?

That's hilarious!

[maxrandb]

40. YES!

If one side (the Reich) repeatedly and continuously appoints Nazis to positions of power when they run the most powerful country in the world, and the other side (the left) NEVER appoints Nazis to positions of power when they run the most powerful country in the world, then yes, YES A THOUSAND TIMES.

I have NEVER denied antisemitism on the Reich. Shit, that's what I am talking about.

Discrimination and ethnic bias is disgusting. Antisemites, racists, fascists, misogynists, etc., have lost their souls, BUT, without the power of the state behind them, they are nothing but individually broken people.

Sorry, but I don't waste my time on morally broken people, but I will fight to my last breath when those broken people have the power of the state on their side.

You can't fix souls that have surrendered to evil, but you can make sure they never have state sanctioned power. That's why I am a proud leftist, progressive Democrat.

[Beastly Boy]

41. If you believe nazis ar the only antisemites that ever existed,

you are in denial of literally thousands of years of history, and are only aware of the past 100 or so years of it.

That's even more hilarious!

[tanyev]

10. Oh, that's when they support diversity?

When it denies the Holocaust?

Disgusting.

[Karasu]

12. Conservatives have reduced EVERYTHING to a matter of opinion. Our society is fucked.

Last edited Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I despise this post-factual reality we're all living in.

[mdbl]

13. She's just a right-wing dumbass

They are very common.

[littlemissmartypants]

16. They're feral and they're everywhere you don't want them to be.

At least that's my experience.

[Joinfortmill]

17. No words for this

[IcyPeas]

18. Ugghh! She was an answer on Jeopardy last night.

They showed her picture.... the clue was about accepting a job in a department that the administration wants to get rid of.... something to that effect.

Ugghh. I hate when any clue on jeopardy is trump related. I wish they wouldn't. (Unless it was to ridicule him/them). I doubt many magats watch jeopardy.

[B.See]

19. Wasn't the FIRST MAGA psychopath to say something like that,

and certainly won't be the LAST. MANY of em are Nazis, and Nazi sympathizers too. In spite of pretense to the contrary.

[BurnDoubt]

20. Making Outrage Great Again.

I think the Idea is to make Outrage so commonplace that it becomes meaningless.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. They are on record being against DIVERSITY, except of course when they are not against diversity. . . . . nt

[applegrove]

23. Exactly. Diversity for the right wing but not for liberals.

[Orrex]

22. "Good people on both sides."

[iemanja]

26. This is who is in charge of investigating alleged antisemitism at universities across the US nt.

[BlueTsunami2018]

27. I keep saying there's only one way to deal with Nazis.

And people keep telling me this can be solved some other way.

It can’t.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

28. I guess this means then she thinks Qanon is just a bunch of diverse viewpoints.

These MAGATs are simply brainwashed batshit crazy.

KY

[Norrrm]

29. Eisenhower wanted the Holocaust and death camps thoroughly documented because he knew there would be these evil scum who

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142813132

Books on Holocaust should be balanced with 'opposing' views, school leader tells teachers

Eisenhower wanted the Holocaust and death camps thoroughly documented because he knew there would be these evil scum who would try to deny it.

Yet Trump has his 6MWE and Camp Auschwitz followers. That's anti-denial in his own camp. (6 Million Wasn't Enough)

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=6mwe

[Initech]

31. Fuck no!!! This is one viewpoint that should not be!

Fuck Nazis, they all belong in the trash!

[Norrrm]

32. Some right wingers deny the Holocaust. Others openly brag about it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217450492

Some right wingers deny the Holocaust. Others openly brag about it.

The Trumpsters marching in Charlottesville were yelling about the ovens ready for the Jews again.

“We killed six million Jews the last time,” he answered. “Eleven million is nothing.”

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029494753

We also have Trumpsters wearing 'Camp Auschwitz' shirts and 6MWE to remind us.

[spanone]

34. K&R

THE SICKEST OF FUCKS

[Behind the Aegis]

39. Not at all surprising.

Holocaust denial, minimalization, revisionism, and misappropriation, are all popular now. Frankly, the survivors can't die quick enough for some.

[surfered]

42. My parents' generation

[Figarosmom]

43. She's also the one that said

Slavery should be taught about both sides.

[Martin68]

44. They've pulled out all stops and are going full fascism. If anybody has any doubt about that, I hope this will disabuse

them of that foolish notion.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

45. Next they'll appoint a "Flat Earther" to head NASA,

and someone who states that the Earth is 8,000 years old to control the National Science Foundation.

[OldBaldy1701E]

47. Gods, Issac Asimov had it right.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

[maxsolomon]

48. Its a non-answer answer. She probably prepped that response.

She doesn't want to answer a hypothetical.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

49. I am so tired

of being told I'm supposed to be "scared."

Why does so many media demand that "we" be "scared," terrified, etc.?

Fuck that.

[Scott Alan Swaggerty]

50. Gross

[Solly Mack]

51. Pisses me off more than scares me. It is sickening.