Godwin's Law: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|"Any off-topic mention of Hitler or Nazis will cause the thread it is mentioned in to come to an irrelevant and off-topic end very soon; every thread on [[UseNet]] has a constantly-increasing probability to contain such a mention."}}

It is generally accepted that [[Derailing|whoever is the first to play the "Hitler card"]] has lost the argument as well as any trace of respect, as having to resort to comparing your adversary to the most infamous mass-murdering dictator in history generally means you've run out of ''better'' arguments. Thus, once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's ~~law~~.

It is generally accepted that [[Derailing|whoever is the first to play the "Hitler card"]] has lost the argument as well as any trace of respect, as having to resort to comparing your adversary to the most infamous mass-murdering dictator in history generally means you've run out of ''better'' arguments. Thus, once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as '''Godwin's Law'''.

The usage of Godwin's Law also has "Henderson's Law" as a corollary, referring to an observation by Joel Henderson that while Mike Godwin specifically stated this to pertain to "gratuitous Hitler-comparisons", Godwin's Law has been frivolously thrown at ''any'' comparison no matter how accurate or on-point. Case example: Jon Stewart of ''[[The Daily Show]]'' [http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=114018&title=A-Relatively-Closer-Look---Hitler-Reference criticizing comparisons to Hitler.]