Why do far right wingers have such a strong tendency to deny the Holocaust? Even among literal Nazis who would be glad that it happened, I see many times that they just flatly deny it exists, and I honestly can't figure out why. It's mostly anecdotal evidence, but it seems fairly evident. There's obviously some appeal to them from denying it but honestly I can't see why they would do it. Does anyone have any ideas as to why?
The Holocaust is basically the #1 reason why people hate Nazis. If you remove the Holocaust from the equation, suddenly Nazis seem more palatable. Holocaust denial serves as a recruitment tool, and in deeper inner circles I'm sure they speak differently on it
If you lurk their more tight knit online spaces, the rhetoric turns from "holohoax" to "6mil wasn't enough".
On the opposite side of the coin, that's also why the 'Communism killed 500 million people' take is so pervasive in the West.
The counter of Holocaust deniers is to say that communists did all the real killing. It falls in line with the early Nazi conspiracies that communism was a Jewish plot and it's rooted propaganda into "Stalin killed millions".
I've heard some neo-nazis believe both that the holocaust never happened and that it should happen again.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
there was a subreddit long ago that had this in it's bio
There was never a "Holocaust" of these vile serpentine vermin, but there should have been and there will be.
It's a contradiction on their behalf, but a cold and calculating move.
They want to establish a complete distrust in mainstream history. By denying the holocaust they can say that it's some Jewish conspiracy to change history entirely and argue that "the Jews control everything".
On the flip side, many of them want a Holocaust to happen, which is also part of their contradiction here. As another commenter pointed out, fascism without the holocaust is more socially acceptable to people. Just look at Marine LePen as an example of a kinder, more gentler fascist when compared to her father.
I first encountered holocaust denial in the early 2010s when going through conspiracy stuff. It truly is the endgame result of the rabbit hole when someone gets into conspiracy stuff and keeps searching for something harder and more crazier than what they already have. David Irving was a popular holocaust denier I remember and I was recommended his videos on Youtube way back in the day and seeing this stuff was one of the things that snapped me out of conspiracy thinking. Irving is only one of them though. Most of the old school white supremacists like Weber and the one who wrote the Turner Diaries are connected to holocaust denial in one way or another. It's a deep rabbit hole.
Bad faith contrarianism. It's the same reason they dont wear masks, it triggers the libs.
