There have been two main responses on Twitter today to AOC’s claim that the US is running concentration camps. Many blue-checked progressives followed AOC’s dishonest lead by denying she meant anything to do with the Holocaust and insisting she was using a more general definition of the phrase. The other response was to simply admit she was referring to the Nazis and cheer on the comparison. The fact that these two responses are at odds didn’t seem to bother many of her fans. First, here’s the ‘actually, she’s technically correct’ reaction:

If you spend a few minutes learning some actual history, you will find out that concentration camps are different from death camps and have a history that both predates and extends far past the Nazis. https://t.co/Bccy3SaXW0

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019

Who do you think will end up on the right side of history: those cheering on the concentration of tens of thousands of desperate migrants in camps with communicable diseases and contemptuous neglect, or those shouting loudly that this is terrible?

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019

Chris eventually, sort of, backed away from this a bit, admitting that maybe AOC had gone a bit too far in making an implied Nazi comparison:

Last comment on this: "concentration camp" is an extremely charged term and I get why many people are, in good faith, uncomfortable with its application for Godwin's Law purposes among others. So let's just call them "detention camps" and focus on what's happening in them.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019

Lots of people didn’t bother to explain themselves this clearly, they just posted the dictionary definition of “concentration camp” to prove the phrase didn’t have to mean Nazi death camp:

Cambridge Dictionary definition of “concentration camp”:
​
1. a prison where, esp. during a war, people who are considered enemies are forced to stay.

2. a place where large numbers of people are kept as prisoners in extremely bad conditions, especially for political reasons.

— John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) June 18, 2019

Webster’s Dictionary includes detained refugees under the definition of concentration camp. So @AOC is 100% factually correct to call these facilities that. If you are offended it is out of your own ignorance. pic.twitter.com/VXApQdh5DV

— Jason Brougham (@JasonBrougham) June 18, 2019

In case you feel any doubt or animosity about @AOC’s characterization of the detention centers at the border being concentration camps, here are a couple dictionary definitions of "concentration camp". The detention centers are by definition concentration camps. pic.twitter.com/T9YemSTyOc

— serafino (🥲 edition) (@jacobdigeronimo) June 18, 2019

Also, according to the dictionary, @AOC is using the term "concentration camp" in proper context. pic.twitter.com/QfgefzutCl

— Walter Kosumak (@RealNotWally) June 18, 2019

Anyway, you get the idea. Lots of people tweeting screencaps of the dictionary. There was also a whole subset of these responses suggesting “concentration camp” could have been a historical reference to the Second Boer War. Case in point:

Not going any deeper into Concentration Camp Twitter today, but the term originated to describe British tactics in the Boer War, and was later applied to Nazi tactics.

Problem with saying “internment camp” instead is that you remind people that Americans had them before.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 18, 2019

For heaven’s sake, the term “concentration camp” was coined by the British during the Boer War – they tried to weaken Boer resistance by rounding up women & children, keeping them in squalor where more than 20,000 died (a huge proportion of their population) https://t.co/rns0Em8FnM

— Tony Karon (@TonyKaron) June 18, 2019

The bottom line is that she didn’t mean what she clearly meant. Deny, deny, deny…

Worth noting: AOC didn't compare the Trump admin to Nazis. She said the US is running concentration camps on the southern border. The phrase "concentration camp" is not automatically a Nazi comparison, as such camps preexisted the Nazis. (See: US camps in the Phillippines, 1901). https://t.co/pSpNk6qBGm

— Joel S. (@jh_swanson) June 18, 2019

Of course, AOC used the phrase “never again” and said the president was a “fascist” which seems to clearly evoke a specific type of (NAZI) concentration camp. But AOC’s fans were eager to ignore these details and instead pretend she’d be making a generic remark about the Boer War…or something. I think they did this mostly because they felt the Nazi comparison wasn’t as defensible and they desperately wanted to defend her. It was a pathetic and dishonest spectacle.

The other reaction on the left was to simply take note of the obvious Nazi comparison she had made and cheer it on. That’s what Rep. Jerry Nadler did, completely undercutting the claim she didn’t mean those concentration camps:

One of the lessons from the Holocaust is ‘Never Again’ – not only to mass murder, but also to the dehumanization of people, violations of basic rights, and assaults on our common morality. We fail to learn that lesson when we don’t callout such inhumanity right in front of us. https://t.co/EEBBkVL7FG

— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) June 18, 2019

But he wasn’t alone. Lots of people agreed we’re now on the path to another Holocaust:

Jew here. @AOC’s point is exactly why we say “Never forget.” The Holocaust did not begin with the murder of 6 million Jews. It began with the same dehumanization, deportation, and internment we see today. You, sickeningly, invoke the Holocaust to minimize their suffering. Shame.

— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) June 18, 2019

There are hundreds of more tweets like this embracing AOC’s Nazi comparison as a warning of things to come.

A concentration camp is a concentration camp is a concentration camp. What the #Trump administration and Republicans are doing is Nazi stuff. https://t.co/J39S9LMw3y

— Matt (@mricha311) June 18, 2019

So there you have it. AOC was using the dictionary definition of “concentration camp” which is not about Nazis because she definitely wasn’t making that comparison. Also, she’s was clearly warning us it’s 1933 and we’re about to see a repeat of the Holocaust. Take your pick. For AOC fans, the important part is that, whatever she said or whatever it meant, she’s 100% correct.

Update: Not all of the responses have been positive.

We urge @AOC to refrain from using terminology evocative of the Holocaust tonvoice concerns about contemporary political issues, as per our letter below. pic.twitter.com/276hH8jRWn

— JCRC of New York (@JCRCNY) June 18, 2019