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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThom Hartman just nullified Godwin's law for the next 4 years
Last edited Tue Dec 20, 2016, 01:57 PM - Edit history (2)
Sorry people he said that on his show today just before either posted it. He wanted to refer to trump as being Hitler-like. Comparing his rallies to the
Nuremberg rallies etc.
unblock
(51,974 posts)it only says that eventually, in an online discussion, someone will mention hitler/nazis.
it's commonly misunderstood to mean things like, whoever mentions hitler/nazis first loses the argument.
forgotmylogin
(7,496 posts)basically the point where an online argument jumps the shark. If the original subject was not about Hitler/Nazis to begin with, it's the point the discussion has descended into reductio ad absurdum and all further continuation is pointless. That's been shortened to "the argument is over/someone loses" but it's like "Oh, the alien babies are real people have contributed, I'm out."
unblock
(51,974 posts)that's the original.
the idea that the discussion is then over, as you describe, and/or lost by whoever brought up hitler/nazis, is common, and listed in wiki as a "corollary", but it's very dangerous as it can easily lead to shutting down discussion when the the analogy actually makes sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
oberliner
(58,724 posts)It's just an experiment Mike Godwin made up.
unblock
(51,974 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)https://www.wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/
unblock
(51,974 posts)rather the experiment was promulgating the law and observing the effects, to see if it actually curtailed gratuitous nazi/hitler references.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)But I think it has essentially morphed into a more expansive idea (i.e. that making a knee-jerk Hitler comparison without fully thinking it through is foolish).
unblock
(51,974 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)That is sort of a pet peeve of mine, to be honest.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Or are we just "supposed to know" somehow?
Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)baldguy
(36,649 posts)Mika
(17,751 posts)Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)MineralMan
(146,192 posts)We are not looking at the same thing you are. If you want to alert us to something, post a link to it. We cannot see through your eyes.
Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)For example he's comparing trump's rallies to the Nuremberg rallies
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)you are listening to. Probably very few people on DU are. So, we had no idea what you were talking about. Providing information in thread-starting posts is the polite thing to do, so people won't be confused or wonder what your source might be.
I still don't know what Hartmann said, you see, that led to your original post.
Oh, well, never mind...
Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)These kinds of OPs are so ridiculous.
No link, no hint, nothing.
Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)That would qualify as a clue for those who are not tuned into his radio channel...most of us.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Invoking Godwin's Law has been as valid as calling Dibs or Shotgun in any formal discussion.
haele
(12,581 posts)With Steve Bannon and other nativists/supremicists, KKK'ers hanging around and supporting the administration, with the use of Nazi propaganda tactics and potential adoption of Nazi government policies (forced birth, isolation of religious/ethnic minorities amongst the citizenry, approval of extra-judicial activities against perceived social deviance.) in the current administration, Godwin's law does not apply.
Haele
stevenleser
(32,886 posts).
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My Facebook timeline and Twitter feed have been blowing up lately. And whenever that happens, its almost always because someones making comparisons to Hitler or Nazis or the Holocaust somewhere. Sure enough, as Trump pontificates about immigrants or ethnic or religious minorities, with scarcely less subtlety than certain early 20th-century political aspirants in Europe did, people on the Internet feel compelled to ask me what I think about it.
Why? Simple: Because 25 years ago, when the Internet was still a pup, I came up with Godwins Law. In its original form, Godwins Law goes like this: As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 1.
Invoking Hitler or Nazis (or World War II or the Holocaust) is common in public life these days, both in the United States and around the world, and it has been for quite a while. Back in 1990, I set out half-seriously and half-whimsically to do something about it.
Through most of the 1980s, Id been a hobbyist using computer bulletin-board systems that connected small local communities by telephone lines. I couldnt help but notice how often comparisons to Hitler or Nazis came up in heated exchanges, usually as a kind of rhetorical hammer to express rage or contempt for ones opponent. Once I was back in school to study law, I leveraged my student status to get a free Internet-based computer account. With access to the global Internet came still more hyperbolic Hitler and Nazi comparisons.
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