Godwin's law

History

Promulgated by American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. He stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics, specifically to address the ubiquity of such comparisons which he believes regrettably trivialize the Holocaust. Later, it was applied to any threaded online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and social-media comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs.

In 2012, Godwin's law became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Generalization, corollaries, and usage

Godwin's law can be applied mistakenly or abused as a distraction, a diversion, or even censorship, when miscasting an opponent's argument as hyperbole even when the comparison made by the argument is appropriate. Godwin has criticized the over-application of the adage, claiming that it does not articulate a fallacy, but rather is intended to reduce the frequency of inappropriate and hyperbolic comparisons:

Godwin's law has many corollaries, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself) than others. For example, many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums have a tradition that, when a Nazi or Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress. This idea is itself sometimes mistakenly referred to as Godwin's law.

Godwin rejects the idea that whoever invokes Godwin's law has lost the argument, and suggests that, applied appropriately, the rule "should function less as a conversation ender and more as a conversation starter." In an interview with Time Magazine, Godwin said that making comparisons to Hitler would actually be appropriate under the right circumstances:

In August 2017, while commenting on the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Godwin himself endorsed and encouraged social-media users to compare its alt-right participants to Nazis.

Godwin has denied the need to update or amend the rule. In June 2018, he wrote, in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times: "It still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism – but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren't." Additionally, when a potential subject of Godwin's law seems "intent on making the Hitler comparison", the comparison with fascism may be appropriate rather than devaluing the argument; a "MAGA" corollary to the Law recognizes the pernicious embrace of Nazi-inspired tropes and phrases by the "alt-right".

As an illustration, in an interview with Politico published on December 19, 2023, Godwin pointed out that Donald Trump might actually be using Hitler's rhetoric on purpose, for instance when accusing immigrants of "poisoning the blood" of the country or calling his political opponents "vermin":You could say the 'vermin' remark or the 'poisoning the blood' remark, maybe one of them would be a coincidence. But both of them pretty much make it clear that there's something thematic going on, and I can't believe it's accidental."In an opinion published the same day in The Washington Post, Godwin stated: "Yes, it's okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don't let me stop you." In the article, Godwin says that "when people draw parallels between Donald Trump's 2024 candidacy and Hitler's progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren't joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy."

References

References

1. Godwin, Mike. (October 1, 1994). "Meme, Counter-meme".
2. Godwin, Mike. (January 12, 1995). "Godwin's law of Hitler Analogies (and Corollaries)". [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]].
3. Harrison, Stephen. (January 24, 2022). "Has Godwin's Law, the Rule of Nazi Comparisons, Been Disproved?". [[Slate (magazine).
4. (December 12, 2021). "Does Godwin's law (rule of Nazi analogies) apply in observable reality? An empirical study of selected words in 199 million Reddit posts". [[Sage Publishing]].
5. Godwin, Mike. (August 18, 1991). "Re: Nazis (was Re: Card's Article on Homosexuality".
6. McFarlane, Andrew. (July 14, 2010). "Is it ever OK to call someone a Nazi?". [[BBC News Magazine]].
7. (September 1, 2011). "Interview with Mike Godwin". [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]].
8. Goldacre, Ben. (September 16, 2010). "Pope aligns atheists with Nazis. Bizarre. Transcript here.". bengoldacre – secondary blog.
9. Stanley, Timothy. (March 6, 2014). "Hillary, Putin's no Hitler". [[CNN]].
10. "Godwin's law". [[Oxford University Press]].
11. Weigel, David. (July 14, 2005). "Hands Off Hitler! It's time to repeal Godwin's Law". [[Reason (magazine).
12. (April 30, 2008). "I Seem to Be a Verb: 18 Years of Godwin's Law". Jewcy.com.
13. Chivers, Tom. (October 23, 2009). "Internet rules and laws: The top 10, from Godwin to Poe". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
14. Datta, N.. (June 20, 2017). "Godwin's Law – How Adolf Hitler Is Mathematically Connected To Internet Forum Discussions". Trove 42.
15. Godwin, Mike. (June 24, 2018). "Op-Ed: Do we need to update Godwin's Law about the probability of comparison to Nazis?". [[Los Angeles Times]].
16. Hoffman, Ashley. (June 29, 2017). "Should You Call Someone Hitler? Here's What the Man Behind Godwin's Law Thinks".
17. Gilbert, Alexandre. (August 17, 2017). "Godwin's Law & the Nazi Cosplay Hobbiysts". [[The Times of Israel]].
18. Mandelbaum, Ryan F.. (August 13, 2017). "Godwin of Godwin's Law: 'By All Means, Compare These Shitheads to the Nazis'". [[Gizmodo]].
19. Rampell, Catherine. (September 24, 2024). "Trump gets compared with history's great villain because his rhetoric is that bad". [[The Washington Post]].
20. (2023-12-19). "'Trump Knows What He's Doing': The Creator of Godwin's Law Says the Hitler Comparison Is Apt".
21. McHugh, Calder. (19 December 2023). "'Trump Knows What He's Doing': The Creator of Godwin's Law Says the Hitler Comparison Is Apt". Politico.
22. (20 December 2023). "Yes, it's okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don't let me stop you.". [[The Washington Post]].