Actually, though you may not believe me, Holocaust denialism hadn't even occurred to me.
It didn't occur to me either, and seemed strange. That word does have strong negative connotations in my mind, but only because I associate it with stupid people denying true things and refusing to update on evidence. I thought the comment that referred to was incorrect, but it seemed more like honest confusion of the sort that clarification would dispel than denialism.
Some history then of exactly why the word conjures strong negative correlations is in order.
Look at the wikipedia entry for "denialism". It originates with holocaust denialism, was then applied to skeptics of HIV==AIDS, and then later to other areas.
Peter Duesberg, the leading HIV==AIDS skeptic, is a German of non-Jewish descent raised in Nazi-era Germany, so it's use against him and his followers adds extra moral angst. It is just about the deepest insulting connotation one can use. It is a signal of stooping to the ultimate low, that, in r...
This thread is for the discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts. If a discussion gets unwieldy, celebrate by turning it into a top-level post.