Godwin's Law
From RationalWiki
Godwin’s Law was formulated by Mike Godwin in the 1990s and states:
| “ | As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. | ” |
Godwin’s Law does not dispute the validity or otherwise of references or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. As such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate in a discussion, Godwin has argued that overuse of the Nazi comparison should be avoided as it waters down the impact of any valid usage. In its purest sense, the rule has more to do with completely losing one's sense of proportion rather than just mentioning Nazis specifically.[1]
With the increase in the number of media for online discussion, Godwin's law is now applied to any online discussion - be they mailing lists, message boards, forums, chat rooms, blog comment threads, or wiki talk pages.
Traditionally in many Internet discussion forums, it is the rule that once such a comparison is made, the discussion is effectively finished and whoever mentioned Hitler or the Nazis has automatically lost the debate. The blogosphere has only heightened the prevalence of Godwin's Law with Nazi references being dropped across the political spectrum such as the liberal DailyKos or right wing religious strong holds such as Bill Donohue's Catholic League and intelligent design advocates the Discovery Institute.
Compared to other known blog based laws, namely Poe's Law, Godwin's Law is quite well known in more mainstream areas. Just to prove it, the law even has its own Wikipedia article.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Meme, Counter Meme - wired.com, by Mike Godwin.
- How to post about Nazis and get away with it - the Godwin's Law FAQ
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ as argued by Finnish Usenet personality Jukka Korpela.
- ↑ Wikipedia - Godwin's Law
- ↑ Shame on you Ben Stein, for this masterpiece of journalism
- ↑ And this masterpiece of film-making
| Articles in RationalWiki related to Internet Laws | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cohen's Law - Conservapedia's Law - Danth's Law - DeMyer's Laws - Godwin's Law - Grey's Law - Jinx's Law - Law of exclamation - Poe's Law - Pommer's Law - Schlafly's Law - Scopie's Law - Skarka's Law - Skitt’s Law - Timecube Law - Zeigler's Law | ||
