History Main / GodwinsLaw

Godwin based this on his observation of behavior on UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}. [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/net-legends-faq/part2.html Net.Legends FAQ]]s "Usenet Rule #4" later reformulated it to read:

* Referencing one's ''own'' community's wrongdoings; for instance, American commenters (who seem to be [[WeAllLiveInAmerica the majority of the Internet]]) might invoke atrocities committed by the U.S. such as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil its history of slavery]] or the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The latter was so prevalent in the online ''Literature/HarryPotter'' community that [[FanWank Fandom Wank]] coined the "Pacific Theatre Corollary" to refer to this strategy.

* Straining for a "legitimate" comparison to Nazi ideology, which tends to fail because HitlerAteSugar (though see Henderson's law for cases where it actually works); something isn't wrong because the Nazis did it, but rather the Nazis are evil because some of the things they did were evil.

Godwin's Law, also known as "Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies," is an "Internet law" describing the tendency of [[InternetJerk people on the Internet]] to say outrageous things to win arguments. Originated by Richard Sexton, it's named after Mike Godwin, longtime attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (and at one time for [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} the Wikimedia Foundation]] as well), who popularized the law in 1990 in this form:

Godwin based this on his observation of behavior on Website/{{Usenet}}. [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/net-legends-faq/part2.html Net.Legends FAQ]]s "Usenet Rule #4" later reformulated it to read:

Note that there's an important distinction -- the comparison to Nazis must be ''frivolous''. The law is not supposed to apply to serious discussions of [[http://xkcd.com/261/ Nazi Germany or its policies]] on the Internet; Mike Godwin has long lamented frivolous invocation of his "law" to stifle such discussion, and has [[ICantBelieveImSayingThis also lamented having to even clarify this aspect of the law]]. This led to the creation of a corollary known as "Henderson's Law", an observation by Joel Henderson that the Internet's awareness of the law has resulted in its invocation at any comparison to Hitler or Nazis, no matter how accurate or on-point.

* You can't just use Godwin's Law to shut down an actual pertinent comparison to Hitler. In some cases, discussion of Hitler and Nazism is absolutely necessary, especially where people [[ANaziByAnyOtherName clearly seem to like its worst policies]]; [[Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver John Oliver]] once noted the need for a "reverse Godwin's Law" stating that if you ''fail'' to address Hitler or Nazism when you need to, you ''lose'' the debate. This is especially true when discussing [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide genocide]], as UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust is generally considered the standard against which to measure other genocides.

A real invocation of Godwin's Law is really an accusation of poor debating, as it amounts to accusing your opponent of comparing you to an atrocity so evil as to be non-debatable, which is not only ''very'' rarely a fair comparison, but also is very insensitive to real-life victims and their descendants. Usually, it's seen as an act of desperation, in the sense that you've run out of better arguments, but for some people, it reflects a sincere belief (for instance, theists often claim that all morality comes from religion, so if you don't believe in God there's nothing stopping you from being as bad as Hitler -- even though whether Hitler himself [[HitlerAteSugar was really an atheist]] is a complicated question).