(JEWISH GROUP) The new face of Holocaust denial is harder to spot -- and more dangerous
When I learned that Holocaust deniers had infiltrated a New Hampshire legislative meeting and tried to insert their view into the state’s Holocaust education efforts, I was personally outraged.
My grandparents, my mother’s first husband and their 5-and-½-year-old son were murdered by Zyklon-B gas in a Birkenau gas chamber in August 1943 — dying cruelly in exactly the way that Germar Rudolf, who was invited by a state lawmaker to testify before a legislative committee, says no Jews were killed.
Rudolf is a prominent figure among Holocaust deniers. For more than 39 years, his “Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust” has sought to delegitimize and undermine the historical record of the mass murder of 6 million European Jews during World War II by promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and characterizing the Holocaust as a myth.
----
And more recently, Tucker Carlson has given Holocaust deniers a platform on his shows. First, in 2024, it was the Nazi apologist Daryl Cooper who propounded the conspiracy theory that the Third Reich never intentionally annihilated 6 million Jews, insisting instead that as the German army swept through Eastern Europe, “they went in with no plan for that and they just threw these people into camps. And millions of people ended up dead there.” Then, this past October, Carlson’s guest was the white supremacist Nick Fuentes who had previously brayed that “I don’t believe there were gas chambers. I don’t believe it was 6 million. I also don’t believe that there was ever an order given out that said, OK, you know, we’re gonna kill ’em all.”
Others in the MAGA world peddle similar Holocaust-rooted conspiracy theories to millions on social media, which is what makes debunking them especially urgent in this time of surging antisemitism. Podcaster Candace Owens, for example, has dismissed the lethal medical experiments performed by the notorious SS doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz as “bizarre propaganda.”
more...
And yet, the highlighted people above are given space/platformed on liberal sites because they are "supposedly anti-war", but in reality, it is their opinions about Israel that have given them "gravitas" in left spaces. 
= new reply since forum marked as read
I knew some of these types in grad school Behind the Aegis. They are bullshitters. They were some of the shallowest people out there - way worse than the apolitical in being superficial and yet aggressive. Its the conflict they enjoy.
I am left, but I never bought them. They were always hollow. And in private they were casually antisemitic. When unobserved, the mask of virtue comes off and they talk about people in exactly the ways they would castigate online in some older person who stumbles in expressing something clumsily. Bullies and narcissists.
Till recently, when a journalist I respect, Yasha Levine, acknowledged the dynamic, I would not have dared say it as you either end up getting lumped with the annoying IDW or mobbed yourself.
They just want an “acceptable” hatred. They rarely make any sacrifices and rarely think deeply. But they like the performance.
Maybe it is an outlet some because we are all angry and frustrated and you could say I am not being forgiving of them. But hey..maybe influencers will end up being the acceptable hatred. Everyone joins hands to hate them.
But jokes aside, they are as distinct from real activists with deep commitments to their causes as chalk from cheese. Bona fide activists tend to be mild, but with a kind of steely determination that gets actual results and they build bridges instead of mining conflict. It is fatiguing and why I stick with donations.
In Herman Wouk’s “Caine Mutiny” he caricatures the type well. Barney Greenwald, a Jewish lawyer who is the closest thing there is in the book to a hero, caricatures an obnoxious campus marxist. He considers the type a noxious influence. The type of person who escapes the consequences of riling people up.
This is classic example of the type:
https://forward.com/news/antisemitism-decoded/820630/julian-casablancas-subway-takes-zionists/
Mining misery to be righteous but “edgy”. This is the type of guy who sends swarms to dox random people. Usually there is also a strong undercurrent of misogyny, which is why women’s rights are largely tossed aside for “Karen” jokes.
It is not people of the Muslim faith. His guest is presumably Muslim, but that is different. Why is this Casablancas guy piling on? He is Danish or something. Why doesn’t he worry about his own ecological footprint? I guess that would require actual sacrifices, lifestyle changes and you know - actually hard things.
And what is the pointing in constantly haranguing the Jewish community on campus. The US govt isn’t responsive to anyone.
Why is it somehow the burden of every Jewish American person to now personally spend all their time feeling wretched because of the U S Govt’s history of favoritism of mercenary industries like defense contracting over anything else? That would include all sorts of mild people trying to lead quiet lives who would be bullied for the actions of people they have no control over..that’s the non vocal personality type in every group who bears the brunt. There are people in the Muslim community who feel the same way - who want to lead a quiet life without purity tests and pressure.
These are nightmarish conflicts no one has any real handle on except the people running society.
Rarely does any of it lead anywhere unless done right. Then why harangue people in both communities for some narcissists many of whom have no connection to any of it, but lead empty lives? I don’t think all Muslim people necessarily like being dragged in. Its a personality thing too. Many people are trying to lead quiet lives. I felt for these engineers I read about who feel pressured to give up jobs and in this market.
Even with honest lefties (e.g.: Current Affairs’ Nathan Robinson and crew) I am not sure that this style works. But they are honest. It is just Chomsky’s legacy.
I have seen people with some progressive leanings who are Hindu get pushed right by this Arundhati Roy brand. Roy and Chomsky bray about their moral superiority into the void and the right loves it. And what happened with Chomsky again? “MeToo hysteria”, Epstein - basically a misogynist.
I found out early in life that if you care about any issue, when you are out and about in the real world you have to tiptoe around to not do more harm (same as the Hippocrates oath).
This attention seeking influencer type otoh uses a heavy hand to provoke. That’s different from (what I consider - being attuned to a different type who could go either way) errors passionate people like the CA crew make. A bit tone-deaf sometimes, but well..who isn’t sometimes?
But the influencers are something else and they are behind most of this noise.
As someone on the left who is anti-war, I have still long noticed this undertone of envy, hatred and stereotyping coming from a shallow and generally somewhat misogynistic type of fake leftist. They are actually regressive on everything but this. Rogan and Carlson are acceptable now?
This Casablancas guy is a fraud and a parasite.
He is one part spiteful and one part like a fictional character in a movie on influencers called “Not Okay” - an influencer who wants to hijack someone else’s misery.
They mine human misery for “edgy” crap. Yasha Levine and Evgenia Kovda (who are honestly anti-war) described an (insufferable) writer Sam Kriss an empty vessel and he is. As is Casablancas.
Yasha Levine (who is sincere - I love Yasha. People may disagree with him, but he is not at all superficial..he does care. And he is himself Jewish and worried about antisemitism) has talked about it. That’s the contrast. Yasha cares. Sam Kriss and Casablancas are leeches.
I take my internet feed with a few sacks of salt these days, so it is useful to be able to tell people who may have human contradictions and angularities as my dad calls them, but who still essentially act in good faith from these guys.
They are a cancer on left discourse- noisy, insincere, catty and self-righteous. It is performative. The emotion is ott and that stuff works way better for the right.
It’s why in my last post I am unleashing a verbal torrent against that than something vaguely positive and insipid. Better a token to degrow a cancer - fight fire with oil eh? 
.
They do so much damage. I can see now that historically they have been a cancer on the left and social media throws it into relief in high definition.
Yasha’s work tears into influencers. He ironically refers to himself as one.
Btw though I am left, I am rarely vocal is this area because I don’t like to barge in being neither Jewish nor Muslim. Seems vaguely indelicate somehow.
I respect both communities. Many of my most helpful doctors have been Muslim. I value them personally and my interactions with people of Muslim faith have been uniformly positive irl.
It is the same with the Jewish community. I have been personally helped psychologically by both communities.
I have started reading The Forward recently because I find it vaguely soothing. I am sick of the feeling of aggressive interrogation and purity tests that have dogged me forever. The Forward is devoid of that. They are mild.
This is not the sole issue out there and making the left and progressive side so aversive to a community with deep roots in activism in other areas (including the biggest challenges of our time - global warming) and all so some sleazy influencers can get clickbait.
There is always a type looking for a religious or racial group to scapegoat or gender wars.
None of what I am saying is about denying those things. I deal with misogyny daily and am so sick of the constant predatory invasion.
But most of this noise is from influencers and they are a noxious class.
No exit won’t be very kind to that type of shallow narcissist.
And that is lot of them.
I see a lot of performative drivel like that. It is two minutes hate. They already are in history books in their heads.
There are sincere people. But they are different. Whether you agree with them or not, they are not there for the most sick party on earth. Those are people who tend to find it all depressing and have a lighter touch.
My mom said it once. About these people going to protest something. It was like a party not a gloomy thing one does without enjoying it because someone has to. These lame people want to star in future historical narratives - all sorts of vain and shameful motivations.
Being observed kills all honest motivation. Who wants to do worthwhile things for such shameful reasons.
I can’t stand to see these frauds hog the left and rile people up and make things worse to later say “oh you know the left is broken and i know!”
A subset of those guys have absolutely no business depressing the left of centre or scientific Jewish community because they found a pseudo moral way to be bullies. Most of them eat factory farmed meat and participate daily in the output of industries that are moral abominations they could do something about.
I normally keep away. But it is exasperating and they are not left. They are aggressive and hijacking anti war to promote themselves and they will destroy the left in the process if the left loses some part of the Jewish community and gains these sleazebags instead. That’s the worst. Losing dedicated people or at least depressing them and gaining these bottom of the barrel types.
I am entering a cone of silence for personal reasons so I wanted my last post to count.
I am saying this explicitly from the left. They are people with issues - not anti-war and people on either side accept support where they can get it, but those guys are not sincere. They like ragebait.
This post is poorly written and repetitious, but I don’t have time to clean it up..
(Hang in there BTA 💚 )