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'''Godwin's law''', short for '''Godwin's law''' (or '''rule''') '''of Nazi analogies''',<ref name="GL FAQ">{{cite web |author= Tim Skirvin |title= How to post about Hitler and get away with it—the Godwin's law FAQ |url= http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin |date= September 15, 1999 |work= Skirv's Wiki |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/19991011095714/http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/ |archive-date= October 11, 1999 |url-status= dead |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name="Godwin94">{{cite magazine |author= Godwin, Mike |author-link= Mike Godwin |title= Meme, Counter-meme |date= October 1994 |magazine= Wired |url= https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html |access-date= March 24, 2006}}</ref> is an Internet adage asserting that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of the word "[[Nazi]]" appearing or [[Adolf Hitler]] approaches 1.<ref name="Godwin94" /><ref name="Godwin95canonical version">{{cite web |author-link= Mike Godwin |last= Godwin |first= Mike |title= Godwin's law of Hitler Analogies (and Corollaries) |publisher= [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] |date= January 12, 1995 |website= EFF.org |pages= "Net Culture – Humor" archive section|url=http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Folklore/Humor/godwins.law |access-date= June 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120829094739/http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Folklore/Humor/godwins.law |archive-date= August 29, 2012 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> 

Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990,<ref name="Godwin94" /> Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions.<ref name="Godwin 1991">{{cite newsgroup|author=Godwin, Mike|author-link=Mike Godwin|title=Re: Nazis (was Re: Card's Article on Homosexuality|date=August 18, 1991|newsgroup=rec.arts.sf-lovers|message-id=1991Aug18.215029.19421@eff.org|url= https://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1991Aug18.215029.19421%40eff.org}}</ref> He stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics.<ref name="Godwin94" /> Later it was applied to any Conversation or online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric<ref name="Goldacre 2010">{{cite web|title=Pope aligns atheists with Nazis. Bizarre. Transcript here. |url= http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/nazi-youth-pope-aligns-atheists-with-nazis-bi |last=Goldacre |first=Ben |publisher=bengoldacre – secondary blog
|date=September 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325005933/http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/nazi-youth-pope-aligns-atheists-with-nazis-bi|archive-date=March 25, 2013}}</ref><ref name="Hillary Putin">{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/05/opinion/stanley-hillary-clinton-hitler/index.html?hpt=hp_c2 |title=Hillary, Putin's no Hitler |work=Opinion |date=March 6, 2014 |agency=CNN |access-date=March 6, 2014 |last=Stanley |first=Timothy}}</ref> where ''[[reductio ad Hitlerum]]'' occurs.

In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the ''Oxford English Dictionary''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/340583?redirectedFrom=Godwin%27s+law#eid|title=Godwin's law|work=Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|access-date=February 27, 2013}}</ref> In 2021, Harvard researchers published an article showing the phenomenon occurs with statistically meaningful frequency e erywhere but Reddit discussions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=2022-01-24 |title=Has Godwin’s Law, the Rule of Nazi Comparisons, Been Disproved? |url=https://slate.com/technology/2022/01/godwins-law-research-disproven-history.html |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=[[Slate Magazine]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fariello |first=Gabriele |last2=Jemielniak |first2=Dariusz |author-link2=Dariusz Jemielniak |last3=Sulkowski |first3=Adam |date=2021-12-07 |title=Does Godwin’s law (rule of Nazi analogies) apply in observable reality? An empirical study of selected words in 199 million Reddit posts |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211062070 |journal=[[New Media & Society]] |language=en |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |pages= |doi=10.1177/14614448211062070 |issn=1461-4448}}</ref>

==Generalization, corollaries, and usage==
There are many [[corollaries]] to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself)<ref name="Godwin95canonical version" /> than others.<ref name="GL FAQ" /> For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and-laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html "Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe"]. ''The Daily Telegraph'' (London), October 23, 2009.</ref> This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's law.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=North Korea|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07tMQs-5SD8| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814072621/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07tMQs-5SD8&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2017-08-14|access-date=7 November 2017|series=[[Last Week Tonight]]|network=[[HBO]]|date=13 August 2017|transcript="There honestly aren't that many instances in modern American politics where you can honestly think: that guy really should have mentioned the Nazis, but this is emphatically one of them. It's like the reversed Godwin's law—if you fail to mention Nazism, you lose the argument."|language=en|last=Oliver|first=John (host)}}
</ref><ref>David Weigel, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090715142410/http://www.reason.com/news/show/32944.html "Hands Off Hitler! It's time to repeal Godwin's Law"] ''Reason (magazine)'', July 14, 2005</ref> 

==See also==
* [[Poe's law]]
* [[Straw man]]
* [[Think of the children]]
* [[Thought-terminating cliché]]
* [[Toothbrush moustache]]

==Further reading==
* {{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/no-nazi-comparisons-sounds-like-something-hitler-would-say.ars|title=No Nazi comparisons? Sounds like something Hitler would say!|last1=Anderson|first1=Nate|date=September 1, 2011|website=[[Ars Technica]]|access-date=September 1, 2011}}

==External links== *[http://www.jewcy.com/post/i_seem_be_verb_18_years_godwins_law "I Seem to be a Verb"]; Mike Godwin's commentary on the 18th anniversary of Godwin's law
* [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/03/godwins-law-mike-godwin-hitler-nazi-comparisons.html Interview with "Mike Godwin on Godwin's Law"] by Dan Amira, ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine, March 8, 2013
* [http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html Wired 2.10; ''Meme, Counter-Meme''] by Mike Godwin

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:Philosophy]]