Social Question

ragingloli's avatar

What is your explanation for this conundrum about White Supremacists, Nazis and Holocaust Deniers?

Asked by ragingloli (52278points) January 18th, 2021

I am talking about the fact that they simultaneously deny that the Holocaust happened, while at the same time wishing that it did.

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9 Answers

cookieman's avatar

Untreated mental illness.

I think this explains a lot of things including conspiracy theorists, flat earthers, and more.

Locking people in institutions and experimenting on and abusing them clearly wasn’t the way to go, but leaving folks to their own devices, to manage their own treatment, has oodles of holes in it too.

We simply do not have successful enough tools to help certain mentally ill people.

Kropotkin's avatar

I supsect the motivation is mainly to antagonise Jews as deeply as possible, which is something Nazis find immensely satisfying, as Jews are their main focus of hatred and spite.

In this case, it’s a double-whammy of offensiveness. The denial is incredibly offensive. And claiming Jewish people deserved it and should have been killed in those numbers (even as they were) is also offensive.

The rational consistency of the arguments aren’t important here. They’re justified by their antagonistic effects and personal emotional appeal, which makes the statements “true” in the minds of such Nazis.

There’s probably also some motivation to rehabilitate Nazi Germany, and make them look as victims of a conspiracy and smear.

janbb's avatar

Are the same people in Germany both deniers and Neo-Nazis?

Here, I’m not sure of the overlap. Those wearing “6MWE” and “CampAuschwitz” t-shirts don’t seem to be deniers.

JLeslie's avatar

GQ. I think a lot of deniers aren’t the ones wearing Nazi t-shirts and swastikas tattoos. Although, I could see them being one in the same. They could rationalize like the idea of hating Jews and not believe millions were killed.

Some Holocaust deniers are just ignorant. They either never learned about the Holocaust or have a hard time processing that it’s possible something like that could happen. They might hate Jews or be completely indifferent. I had a friend in college who didn’t understand why people got so upset swastikas were drawn on some form doors. He said, “it’s just a symbol.”

The WS marching around America, some of them use the symbols and don’t even know the full history, they are just brainwashed. They are mostly men who feel insignificant and being part of a group that accepts them and tells them they are better than others makes them feel powerful. I know that probably nothing new to anyone on this thread.

These people don’t think logically, they twist narrative to support what they want to believe and anything contradictory they ignore.

Most Trump supporters use narrative being afraid of Nazi Germany happening here. Afraid of a Hitler in charge. That’s why they were afraid of Obama and are of Biden, they are actually more afraid of Harris than Biden. They think Democrats want to be dictators and they think of Hitler as an example of a dictator.

JLoon's avatar

It’s more a question of pathology rather than politics.

When you try to analyze Nazis and other extremist groups, standards based on rational thinking just don’t work. What attracts and motivates people in these groups is emotional need, not facts and ideas.
Contradictions and conundrums like the one you refer to are obvious to everyone else, but meaningless to them.

How do I explain it? Being radical and organized doesn’t mean you can’t be stupid too.

si3tech's avatar

No conundrum for me. No such thing s white supremacist. I associate Nazis with Hitler. And the Holocaust was real!

cheebdragon's avatar

And “they” are whom, exactly? Can other people hear them?

bernd's avatar

… 6 Million Were Enough…

The deniers of the holocaust are all together Neo-Nazis, organized not-organized, and of course one psychopath more here ore there, but they all know, what they do – they are not ill. They haven’t learned and couldn’t to recognize, what it means: “jewish-bolshevist world conspiracy”. It was the main term of the Nazism in it’s slogans in War on Communism and against the USSR – a total war against humanity – 20 Millon. The holocaust was one of the summits of the many Nazi crimes, the perfectionezed industriell overkill. Whitnesses, if victim or offender, showed the world the horror of the holocaust camps.

The right-wing movement in the US is very contradictory and I believe,
the denieing of the holocaust is not the point of dissensse, because Trump needs the deniers as electers as the White supremacists.

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