Join the Discussion - View Single Post - What is Godwin's Law? (or, why can't I mention the Nazis and get away with it?)

matthew · 05-17-2007

Back in the early 1990s a guy named Mike Godwin proposed on Usenet, the place to chat and discuss things like we do here, that as internet discussions become longer (and more heated), the probability of a comparison to the Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

This law says nothing about whether the comparison is apt or not, merely that it becomes more likely to occur the longer the discussion continues.

There is a long standing tradition on the internet that once this comparison has been made, all rational discussion has ended and the thread is essentially finished...there's no point in trying to continue the conversation from that point forward. The tradition also states that the person who makes the comparison automatically loses the argument. Period.

More here: Godwin's Law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your comments?

05-17-2007	#1 (permalink)
matthew Eligible for a custom title Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 858	What is Godwin's Law? (or, why can't I mention the Nazis and get away with it?) Back in the early 1990s a guy named Mike Godwin proposed on Usenet, the place to chat and discuss things like we do here, that as internet discussions become longer (and more heated), the probability of a comparison to the Nazis or Hitler approaches one. This law says nothing about whether the comparison is apt or not, merely that it becomes more likely to occur the longer the discussion continues. There is a long standing tradition on the internet that once this comparison has been made, all rational discussion has ended and the thread is essentially finished...there's no point in trying to continue the conversation from that point forward. The tradition also states that the person who makes the comparison automatically loses the argument. Period. More here: Godwin's Law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Your comments?