Godwins Law
By anklesmash
@anklesmash (1412)
January 18, 2010 5:48pm CST
I was wondering if any mylotter has ever heard of godwins law.The law says the longer a an internet debate goes on the probability of mentioning hitler or the nazis keeps getting close to one where it is certain.And in a lot of debates the person making the nazi analogy has automatically lost excecpt on debates involving genocides etc where similarities exist.What i would like to know is what do you think about this does it stifle debate or does it stop people making links to nazi germany that are purely fallacies for example arguing for fox hunting and against anti hunt campaigners just because Hitler thought fox hunting was cruel.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
17 Jul 12
I can see that in a way because telling someone they are like Hitler or comparing someone to Hitler is probably the worst insult you could throw at someone, in all of history he was one of the most awful people who did the most awful things to many, many people, there have been others who have been cruel in this way as well, but most of Hitler's activities were recorded, so if someone compares someone to Hitler they are obviously trying to dish out the biggest insult they can possibly think of, and I could see somebody who is losing an argument that is heated to get frustrated enough to say such a thing. Of course the probability that, that person is anything like Hitler is pretty low to impossible.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
20 Nov 11
I think that because it was such a traumatic event for the world, it does tend to stick around. I have not heard of Godwins law but will be checking that out now. I have heard people make references to Hitler and Nazis in debates that didn't really apply. Mostly I have heard it in religious debates but we all know that Nazi was a political party..not religious. Thanks for the info..I'm gonna research that law.
