Godwin's Law (also Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a mainstay of internet culture, an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990.

It states:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Godwin observed that people had increasingly begun to compare anyone and anything they mildly disliked with Hitler and/or Fascism.

Godwin has stated that Godwin's Law does not dispute whether, in a particular instance, a reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be apt. It is precisely because such a reference or comparison may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued, that hyperbolic overuse of the Hitler/Nazi comparison should be avoided. Avoiding such hyperbole, he argues, is a way of ensuring that when valid comparisons to Hitler or Nazis are made, such comparisons have the appropriate impact.

Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet discussions, the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and so on.

Corollaries and usage

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There is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.

It is considered poor form to arbitrarily raise such a comparison with the motive of ending the thread. There is a widely recognized codicil that any such deliberate invocation of Godwin's Law will be unsuccessful.

See also

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• Benford's law of controversy
• Reductio ad Hitlerum
• Jargon File
• Wilcox-McCandlish law of online discourse evolution
• List of adages named after people
• The Jefferson Debate

Notes and references

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Footnotes

Other references

External links

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• Godwin's Law FAQ (also ^*)
• Godwin's Law in Main Page Jargon
• Jurisimprudence — a listing of various fandom and Internet debate laws similar to Godwin's Law
• Mike Godwin runs a blog called "Godwin's Law"

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