However, many people seem to want to obscure this for their own political purposes. They just accuse people of being "holocaust deniers" if they hold views on the Nazis that have nothing to do with the holocaust. Here is one example:
anyone who attempts to cast doubt on the absolute fact that the nazis were right-wing fascists is a not only a nazi apologist, they're a holocaust denier
https://twitter.com/shaun_vids/status/1 ... 6600633353
Or if you believe in the "double genocide" theory, that also makes you a holocaust denier.
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-double-genocide-theory
Also, Deborah Lipstadt on "softcore denial":
It does not deny the facts, but it minimizes them, arguing that Jews use the Holocaust to draw attention away from criticism of Israel.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... al/514974/
None of these things have anything to do with actual holocaust denial.
What do your opinions on whether the Nazis were right wing or not have to do with the holocaust? Absolutely nothing. Rainer Zitelmann wrote a whole book called "Hitler's National Socialism" arguing that Hitler's political views don't fall into neat "right or left" categories.
https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-National ... 1852527900
Here is a short article he wrote arguing for that position:
https://mises.org/wire/was-hitler-really-right-wing
As far as I can tell, Zitelmann is a mainstream historian and not considered to be some fringe crank, even if not all historians agree with him. Now whether you agree with his position or not, nowhere is there any argument one way or the other about whether the holocaust happened. In fact, "denying the holocaust" would get Zitelmann reduced to pariah status, which doesn't seem to be the case. Shaun's statement is just pure stupidity.
Then there's the "double genocide" theory. The theory being that the Soviet Union committed atrocities comparable to the holocaust. Now this makes absolutely no sense. As an actual holocaust denier, I don't believe in "double genocide". I don't believe the Nazis committed any genocide at all. Believing in this theory is completely incompatible with holocaust denial, yet they call it "holocaust denial" anyway.
And for Lipstadt, she says "softcore denial" does not "deny the facts". So how is it denial then? And how does believing that the holocaust is used to draw attention away from Israel have anything to do with the fact of whether the holocaust actually happened or not? It doesn't, but she wants to piggyback the term to things she personally doesn't like.
So as can be seen, many people seem to want to use the term "holocaust denial" for things that have nothing to do with the holocaust. But what are the implications of using this strategy? It seems like it will numb people to the term. This could possibly be a benefit to us. I don't see how they can maintain the taboo nature of being an "evil" holocaust denier if they are just going to apply it to mundane things like Hitler's political beliefs.