Godwin's Law: Difference between revisions

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(Created page with "'''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=...")
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{{Template:Logical fallacies and propaganda methods}}
'''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>
The phrase '''Godwin's Law''' (or '''Godwin's rule of Hitler analogies'''), coined by Mike Godwin in 1990, originally referred to a semi-serious assertion that "''As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving [[Hitler]] approaches 1''"—​​that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will negatively compare someone or something to Hitler.


Godwin's Law is now applied also to situations other than online situations and also to negative comparisons more generally with "[[Nazism]]".
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 many cases, it is attempted [[guilt by association]] or [[ad hominem]].
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>


The ubiquitousness of the described phenomenon can be seen as in some cases related to [[Holocaustianity]], with Hitler for many having replaced the Devil as the ultimate evil.
==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==
==See also==
*[[Brown baiting]]
* [[Poe's law]]
*[[Holocaustianity]]
* [[Straw man]]
* [[Think of the children]]
* [[Thought-terminating cliché]]
* [[Toothbrush moustache]]


{{Wikipedia}}
==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}}


[[Category:Internet]]
==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
[[Category:Logical fallacies]]
* [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
[[Category:National Socialism]]
* [http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html Wired 2.10; ''Meme, Counter-Meme''] by Mike Godwin
[[Category:Holocaustianity]]
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}

Revision as of 22:43, 7 September 2022

Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies,[1][2] 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.[2][3]

Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990,[2] Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions.[4] He stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics.[2] 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[5][6] where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs.

In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.[7] In 2021, Harvard researchers published an article showing the phenomenon occurs with statistically meaningful frequency e erywhere but Reddit discussions.[8][9]

Generalization, corollaries, and usage

There are many corollaries to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself)[3] than others.[1] 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.[10] This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's law.[11][12]

See also

Further reading

==External links== *"I Seem to be a Verb"; Mike Godwin's commentary on the 18th anniversary of Godwin's law

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tim Skirvin (September 15, 1999). How to post about Hitler and get away with it—the Godwin's law FAQ. Skirv's Wiki.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Godwin, Mike (October 1994). "Meme, Counter-meme". Wired. https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html. Retrieved March 24, 2006. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Godwin, Mike (January 12, 1995). Godwin's law of Hitler Analogies (and Corollaries) pp. "Net Culture – Humor" archive section. Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  4. ↑ Template:Cite newsgroup
  5. ↑ Goldacre, Ben (September 16, 2010). Pope aligns atheists with Nazis. Bizarre. Transcript here.. bengoldacre – secondary blog.
  6. ↑ broken cite news
  7. ↑ Godwin's law. Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
  8. ↑ Harrison, Stephen (2022-01-24). Has Godwin’s Law, the Rule of Nazi Comparisons, Been Disproved? (en).
  9. ↑ Fariello, Gabriele; Jemielniak, Dariusz; Sulkowski, Adam (2021-12-07). "Does Godwin’s law (rule of Nazi analogies) apply in observable reality? An empirical study of selected words in 199 million Reddit posts" (in en). New Media & Society (SAGE Publishing). doi:10.1177/14614448211062070. ISSN 1461-4448. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211062070. 
  10. ↑ "Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe". The Daily Telegraph (London), October 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Template:Cite episode
  12. ↑ David Weigel, "Hands Off Hitler! It's time to repeal Godwin's Law" Reason (magazine), July 14, 2005
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