I wonder how many Holocaust deniers are Hitler huggers and how many are just really stupid. Those are the only two answers, of course. Not to imply that they are mutually exclusive.
That depends on the Holocaust denier, of course. Deniers need to be divided into four categories:
1) gurus, those who write books denying the Holocaust (like Butz)
2) cheerleaders, other deniers who write things or make statements denying the Holocaust (like Ahmadinejad, or David Duke) but who contribute no new ideas to the belief system
3) internet deniers, who post on internet forums denying the Holocaust (like Stormfront, or CODOH, or our small gaggle here), and other minor small fry who maybe write letters to mainstream media outlets or make a pro-denial comment on a blog
4) passive deniers, who have read the websites or books and continue to do so, but who have not yapped about it on the internet or in public - i.e. the overall
market for Holocaust denial literature and propaganda.
The gurus (1) number about 100 since 1945, and about 33%-50% can be considered overt Hitler huggers. The rest are antisemitic. There are virtually no exceptions to that rule, with Bradley Smith being one of the few, since he got sucked in because of his libertarianism. He has however now absorbed passively the antisemitism of the rest of the crowd. So approximately 99 out of 100 gurus are either Hitler huggers or antisemites, or both.
Of the 100 gurus, none are so stupid they can't write a book, obviously, but all of them make assertions which are either based on logical fallacies or which are simply plain wrong due to ignorance or poor reasoning.
There are proportionately far fewer Hitler Huggers among the cheerleaders (2) since you have to factor in the Islamists, none of whom have risen to guru status, as well as the fringe Christian sects. But for every Ahmadinejad there is a David Duke or Alex Linder or Harold Covington, so you can figure 1/3 Hitler Huggers among this group, and pretty much 99% being antisemites. Stupidity is again relative, but when Bishop Williamson came out and babbled about 'six million gassed', that is a
stupid comment, since 'six million gassed' is not an accepted claim in the history books. Likewise, if Ahmadinejad endorses both denial as well as 9/11 conspiracy theories, he is functioning like a stupid person, even though in other aspects of his life, he is obviously very clever.
When we turn to the internet deniers and small fry (3) then we find a similarly mixed picture, with a high proportion of Hitler Huggers, while 90-95% are antisemitic. The remainder are contrarians. Most of the antisemites
become Hitler Huggers despite their initial protestations, and the contrarians also become antisemites. Since the largest groups of internet deniers by far are to be found on white nationalist forums, then the proportion of Hitler Huggers is very high. The ones who escape the net and troll us here are mostly motivated by antisemitism.
Ambient stupidity levels among internet deniers, however, are through the roof. Internet deniers are increasingly functionally illiterate in the sense that fewer and fewer bother to read the books of the gurus. They are mostly 'converted' by watching YouTube videos, as with other conspiracy theories today. 95% of them do not show any signs of ever having read a conventional history book on the subject.
Based on the narrower sample of internet deniers at CODOH forum and on several other forums, it is my considered opinion that approximately 25% of internet deniers are in fact, apocalyptically stupid. Many of the remainder must also be considered at least nominally stupid, with a minority displaying real intelligence and real learning.
The passive audience, meanwhile, is likely to be disproportionately composed of Hitler Huggers since the only reliable source of advertising and book promotion for denial is to be found in the white nationalist, neo-Nazi milieu. As the passive audience don't pipe up to voice their denial, they are obviously to be considered smarter than the ones that do.
