Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)^[1] is an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. An adage (ˈædɪdʒ or adagium (Latin is a short but memorable saying that holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people or that Michael Wayne Godwin (born October 26, 1956) is an American attorney and Author. The law states:^[2][3]

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system "

Godwin's Law is often cited in online discussions as a caution against the use of inflammatory rhetoric or exaggerated comparisons, and is often conflated with fallacious arguments of the reductio ad Hitlerum form. A fallacy is a component of an Argument which being demonstrably flawed in its Logic or form renders the argument invalid in whole In Logic, an argument is a Set of one or more Declarative sentences (or "propositions") known as the Premises along Reductio ad Hitlerum, also argumentum ad Hitlerum, or reductio (or argumentum) ad Nazium

The rule does not make any statement whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that one arising is increasingly probable. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Probability is the likelihood or chance that something is the case or will happen It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued^[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact. Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,^[5] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki talk pages. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system A newsgroup is a Repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from many users in different locations A threaded discussion is an electronic discussion (such as one via E-mail, e-mail list, Bulletin board, Newsgroup, or Internet forum An electronic mailing list (sometimes written as elist or e-list) is a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by Mass media to describe any form of Synchronous conferencing, occasionally even Asynchronous conferencing A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content using a simplified Markup language.

Godwin's law is a specific example of a more general principle that also appears to be true.

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of any comparison of any given group to another approaches one. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system "

This law, and Godwin's Law, is supported rationally by acceptance of the fact that, the longer a conversation takes place, the more likely any given idea is to be brought up.

Contents 1 History 2 Corollaries and usage 3 In popular culture 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

History

Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's Law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics. This article is related to the study of self-replicating units of culture not to be confused with Mimetics Memetics is a neo-Darwinian approach ^[3]

Linking by implication the fallacy of reductio ad Hitlerum to online discussion length had been done prior to 1990 by a poster named Richard Sexton in 1989: "You can tell when a USENET discussion is getting old when one of the participents^[sic] drags out Hitler and the Nazis. A fallacy is a component of an Argument which being demonstrably flawed in its Logic or form renders the argument invalid in whole Reductio ad Hitlerum, also argumentum ad Hitlerum, or reductio (or argumentum) ad Nazium Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus" "so" "as such" or "just as that" "^[6] Godwin's Law does not, however, claim to articulate a fallacy; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons. It has not been established whether Sexton's quip had any influence on Godwin's law, though Sexton has stated that Godwin has acknowledged that he borrowed the idea from Sexton and named it. ^[7]

Corollaries and usage

There are many corollaries to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself)^[2] than others invented later. This article is not about Literary canons of influential works of fiction but about the concept of a canon which defines the world of a particular fictional series ^[1] For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress. Debate ( American English) or debating ( British English) is a formal method of interactive and position representational Argument. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's Law. It is considered poor form to raise such a comparison arbitrarily with the motive of ending the thread. There is a widely recognized codicil that any such ulterior-motive invocation of Godwin's law will be unsuccessful (this is sometimes referred to as "Quirk's Exception"). ^[8]

Godwin's Law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one's opponent) with Hitler or Nazis or their actions. It does not apply to discussions directly addressing genocide, propaganda, or other mainstays of the Nazi regime. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Whether it applies to humorous use or references to oneself is open to interpretation, because although mentioning and trivializing Nazism in an online discussion, this would not be a fallacious attack against a debate opponent.

However, Godwin's Law itself can be abused, as a distraction or diversion, that fallaciously miscasts an opponent's argument as hyperbole, especially if the comparisons made by the argument are actually appropriate. A straw man argument is an Informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position Hyperbole (haɪˈpɝːbəli hye-PER-buh-lee; "HYE-per-bowl" is a mispronunciation comes from Greek "υπερβολή" (meaning exaggeration and is a A 2005 Reason magazine article argued that Godwin's Law is often misused to ridicule even valid comparisons. Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation. ^[9]

In popular culture

While Godwin's Law is best known in Usenet, it has clearly spread to other forms of online communication. In 2007, Slashdot noted that Godwin's law affected an ongoing, highly public dispute between Linux founder Linus Torvalds and the GNOME project. Slashdot, often abbreviated as /, is a technology-related news Website owned by SourceForge Inc Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ˈtuːrvalds born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle ^[10] A May 2007 issue of Randall Munroe's webcomic xkcd anachronistically portrays Allied officers trying to discuss Axis military tactics, but being interrupted by Godwin's Law. Randall Patrick Munroe (born October 17 1984) is a programmer best known for creating the Webcomic Xkcd. Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are Comics Published on a Website, often exclusively providing easy access to an xkcd is a Webcomic created by Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA. The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries ^[11] Similarly, a November 2007 issue of Jeph Jacques's webcomic Questionable Content, entitled "Godwin Wars", referenced (and contrasted) Godwin's law and the reductio ad Hitlerum. Jeph Jacques (born) writes and illustrates the Webcomics Questionable Content and "indietits" Questionable Content (abbreviated QC) is a slice-of-life Webcomic written and drawn by Jeph Jacques. Reductio ad Hitlerum, also argumentum ad Hitlerum, or reductio (or argumentum) ad Nazium ^[12] Such appearances, without explanatory material, may suggest that it is increasingly assumed that web users are generally already familiar with the adage. In its October 2007 issue and on its website, Wired published a "Geekipedia" piece that includes an entry for "Godwin's law" among "people, place, ideas, and trends you need to know now". Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993 ^[13]

The concept appears to have entered the public consciousness more broadly, as well. In 2005, the aphorism was the subject of a question in the British television quiz show University Challenge. University Challenge is a long-running British television quiz show, licensed and produced by Granada Television. ^[14] By 2007, The Economist had declared that "a good rule in most discussions is that the first person to call the other a Nazi automatically loses the argument. The Economist is an English-language weekly news and International affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London "^[15] And in October 2007, the "Last Page" columnist in The Smithsonian stated that when an adversary uses an inappropriate Hitler or Nazi comparison, "you have only to say 'Godwin's Law' and a trapdoor falls open, plunging your rival into a pool of hungry crocodiles. Smithsonian is a monthly Magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D "^[16]

See also

• Association fallacy
• Benford's law of controversy
• Internet troll
• List of adages named after people
• Reductio ad Hitlerum

References

External links

• Godwin's Law FAQ (also [1])
• Godwin's Law at the Public Domain Jargon File
• Mike Godwin runs a legal blog called Godwin's Law
• "I Seem to be a Verb"; Mike Godwin's commentary on the 18th anniversary of Godwin's Law
• Just Like Hitler; a blog collecting unnecessary comparisons with Hitler and Nazi Germany

A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of

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