Godwin's Law

T. A. Gardner said:
Cute, but I had to call in an expert:

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QUESTION: Is this one an example of Godwin's law?

"Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during an interview on a conservative podcast this week, compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to continue to require members of the House to wear masks on the chamber floor to steps the Nazis took to control the Jewish population during the Holocaust."
 
AProudLefty said:
QUESTION: Is this one an example of Godwin's law?

"Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during an interview on a conservative podcast this week, compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to continue to require members of the House to wear masks on the chamber floor to steps the Nazis took to control the Jewish population during the Holocaust."
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No. That would be accurate reporting of what someone said. As for Greene saying it, it isn't a violation only because she wasn't on the internet saying it at the time...
 
Trumpet said:
A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfieted the argument.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Godwin's Law
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Nice. One of my favorite amusements is watching some RWer calling some LWer a "socialist" or "fascist," then when the LWer says something like "No, that was what the Nazis were," the RWer yells "Godwin's Law!" lol
 
AProudLefty said:
QUESTION: If you compare someone to Rommel, is it an example of Godwin's law?
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I think that in order to invoke Godwin, the comment must refer to a well-known Nazi. A lot of ppl have no clue who Rommel was, or that he was a brilliant field marshal and not into politics.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
I think that in order to invoke Godwin, the comment must refer to a well-known Nazi. A lot of ppl have no clue who Rommel was, or that he was a brilliant field marshal and not into politics.
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He wanted nothing to do with Jew and Hitler shit. He did it only for Germany, period.
 
The arbitrary rule that invoking Hitler or the NAZIs immediately loses an argument
requires deficient thinking to be considered reasonable.

What happened once can happen again.
It should never have happened once but it did, didn't it?

America would have to go collectively insane to elect Donald Trump president, but that's exactly what we did.
Do you think we'll ever be taken seriously again for the next one hundred years?
Forget about it.
 
Actually, Rommel did buy into Nazi ideology to a good degree. While he was never an ardent Nazi, he accepted more of their politics and doctrine than many other high ranking Wehrmacht officers did. Prior to the war, Hitler selected him personally to command his escort battalion, the Führerbegleitbatallion. One of the reasons he was shuttled off to N. Africa was the Wehrmacht's top generals saw his popularity with Hitler as a threat to their own positions so they promoted him to generalleutnant (lieutenant general) and sent him to N. Africa.
Of course, Rommel made a name for himself he could never have done in Russia.

In the end, Rommel became less and less enamored of Hitler and the Nazis and this was why he participated in the April 20th 1944 assassination attempt that ended up costing him his life.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
Actually, Rommel did buy into Nazi ideology to a good degree. While he was never an ardent Nazi, he accepted more of their politics and doctrine than many other high ranking Wehrmacht officers did. Prior to the war, Hitler selected him personally to command his escort battalion, the Führerbegleitbatallion. One of the reasons he was shuttled off to N. Africa was the Wehrmacht's top generals saw his popularity with Hitler as a threat to their own positions so they promoted him to generalleutnant (lieutenant general) and sent him to N. Africa.
Of course, Rommel made a name for himself he could never have done in Russia.

In the end, Rommel became less and less enamored of Hitler and the Nazis and this was why he participated in the April 20th 1944 assassination attempt that ended up costing him his life.
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As I have said, he wasn't a Nazi. He fought for Germany and nothing else.
 
Just like most things on the internet, Godwin's Law has gotten a little bit more complicated in the past few years. Spamming Trump's Twitter mentions with Hitler memes might be a good illustration of the law in action, but even Godwin himself came forward in 2015 to clarify that his rule shouldn't be invoked when people make thoughtful, well-informed comparisons between Hitler and Trump, or any other politician.

There's another trick to navigate with Godwin's Law in 2021:Literal Nazis and white nationalists are on the internet, too, and they're more visible now. For example, Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who coined "alt-right" as a friendlier term for his beliefs, may not like being called a Nazi. But he also told his supporters shortly after Trump's election that they should "party like it's 1933," referencing the year Hitler was appointed Germany's chancellor. So comparing Spencer to a Nazi is less about painting someone as an extremist, and more about semantics.

"I don't think Richard Spencer and his supporters could invoke Godwin's Law when someone calls them a Nazi." [Geeko Sportivo]
 
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Godwin sued Donald Trump!

Godwin—perhaps best known as the creator of Godwin's Law, the early internet axiom that "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1″—and the Blackstone Law Group are representing TikTok employee Patrick S. Ryan. Their suit—filed against Trump and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California—was brought "to prevent the implementation of the President's August 6, 2020 Executive Order purporting to ban all 'transactions' with TikTok, to the extent that order would prevent TikTok from paying its U.S. employees their wages and salaries when the order takes effect on September 21," the complaint stated.

https://reason.com/2020/08/24/mike-...-suing-trump-over-his-tiktok-executive-order/
 
I guess if I start a thread comparing Chairman Mao and Hitler, I am guilty of "violating" Godwin's Law?
 
NiftyNiblick said:
The arbitrary rule that invoking Hitler or the NAZIs immediately loses an argument
requires deficient thinking to be considered reasonable.
What happened once can happen again.
It should never have happened once but it did, didn't it?
America would have to go collectively insane to elect Donald Trump president, but that's exactly what we did.
Do you think we'll ever be taken seriously again for the next one hundred years?
Forget about it.
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Maybe Godwin's Law applies in that fabricated misnomer immaculate Jesus the Christ forgiven conception in the USA as that WW II Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht Holocaust concentration camp Mengele "Angel of Death" baptize thine eyes by urinations Christiananality pedophilia there's been those Papal contingents of thieving bereavement memorial to JFK, containing an old glory & old testament arsonists baptize thine eyes by urinations followed by West Nazi Germany Virginia's KKK thieving a Navy Hospital US Constitution arsonists on a cross including that baptize thine eyes by urinations for McHeil's Navy "man is God" "serve the Pope or die"; only to be followed by SCOTUS Federal Lynching KKK churchstate of hate thieving US Constitution arsonists which baptize thine eyes by urinations for Rehnquist's fabricated Islam misnomer mass neuroses bill of attainder to 2 Washington, D.C. born USA citizens followed by immaculate drug conceptions in their 9/11 Arab "death to the infidels" more perfect union diatribe tautology of once is an accident, twice is a coincidence; but there are no coincidences while thrice is a conspiracy or just the national religion of suicidal sociopsychopathilogical homicidal human farming.....
 
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