I'll say it: that was not a gaffe. That served a purpose.

[Recursion]

The memory of the Shoah is weakened by this.

The next generation's Gottfried Küssel will quote "White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer" on this, and say "so clearly there was no gas used".

This administration is very good at manipulating the media, and this is an example.

[JHan]

1. well if the rumors about Trump wanting to rid himself of Spicer are true.. here's the opportunity.

[Flaleftist]

2. Who's the replacement?

Is he still on good terms with Alex Jones? 😜

[JHan]

3. lulz

[alterfurz]

13. Kellyanne!

oh please let it be Kellyanne!

[madinmaryland]

4. Manipulating the media thus distracting the

American people from what they are really doing.

[Warpy]

5. The avoidance of "concentration camps" was also deliberate

since this administration dreams of opening them here, first for illegal immigrants, then for anyone else they decide not to like. They want to disassociate the term from mean old Hitler. "Holocaust centers" sound nicer, anyway, you know they had trees and flowers and vegetable gardens and everybody was happy to keep them nice.

We've seen this movie before. If they're not stopped, we know the ending.

[Recursion]

7. Yup (nt)

[jrthin]

9. The avoidance of "concentration camps" is disgusting. nt

[anneboleyn]

22. And "innocent people" comment. Totally deliberate.

[Squinch]

6. I agree with you that his comment will be used to deny the Holocaust.

I am on the fence as to whether I think that was Spicer's plan. On the one hand, it requires too much intelligence on his part. On the other hand, the phrase "holocaust centers" which supports your statement, was not a spur of the moment phrase.

It seems to me like HE didn't come up with the plan, but whoever is giving him his talking points did. And that would be, possibly, Bannon.

[Recursion]

8. OK, I was where you were, an hour ago. Then a friend reminded me

On the first day of Holocaust Remembrance Week, they did not list Jews among the victims. Remember that?

[Squinch]

11. I do remember. The only question is this: is Shouty smarter than a doorknob, or

is he every bit as dumb as he seems to be and is there a ventriloquist moving his mouth?

[KittyWampus]

10. It was a talking point recieved from Bannon and a shout out to the breitbart/infowars mouthbreathers

[Recursion]

12. Yup (nt)

[Docreed2003]

14. It was deliberate and disgusting...

The giveaway was when he used the term "holocaust centers". I mean, the guy literally is downplaying and making a euphemism for the annihilation of six million people. This was clearly deliberate and a shout out to the alt right nutters!

[Recursion]

15. Yes, exactly (nt)

[Ezior]

17. This is disturbing

Is there any, ever so slight, chance that Spicer just forgot the right term? Concentration Camps? And just made something up? Is that a possibility, or is that term just as well-known in the US as it is in Germany and nobody could reasonably claim that he forgot for a second what they are called?

Also, that comparison is just so wrong, trying to say "Assad is worse than Hitler". Assad is cruel. But to claim "dropping a chemical weapon that kills innocents" is worse than "managing complex logistics to force all the Jews into concentration camps, then use them as slaves and kill them (organized, managed and conducted on _industrial_ scale) if they can't do any work" is really fucked up. I wouldn't try to give scores in order to compare them to either of those actions, but I do see a difference.

Also that part where Spicer said "Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent, into the middle of towns"… Yeah. That's right, but in no way worse than Hitler. Hitler simply was very selective about which innocent people from the middle of towns he wanted to kill, while the Good Germans could pretend that nothing bad was going on.

And if I had to choose, I'd rather die from a sarin weapon dropped into my garden than suffering through and dying in the Holocaust.

[warmfeet]

20. I think you are correct in your assessment.

Also, it may well have been more than 6 million people.

[uponit7771]

21. +1

[smirkymonkey]

23. Obviously -- way to whitewash the horror of what was really going on.

"Holocaust Centers"? Like, "come on kids, let's go down to the holocaust center today and do some craft projects!" He makes it sound like it was some kind of community outreach program.

[Johnny2X2X]

16. Not the first time they dabbled in denial

Remember the holocaust remeberence day where they wouldn't mention the Jewish Holocaust?

This is simply them giving a nod to their Neo Nazi roots. I'm sure the White Supremacy websites are tickled about this.

[GallopingGhost]

18. How very convenient

this *gaffe* occurs on the same week the media is full of articles about Trump losing support among his alt-right base.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Alt-right dumping tRump re Syria bombing. Was Holocaust denial on Passover a play to get them back?