I created Godwin's Law in 1990, but it wasn't a prediction - it was a warning

[Independent voter]

Godwin who is still alive speaks out about "Godwin's Law". He claims it was tongue in cheek used to warn people against going to the extreme to prove a point. At least I think he's saying that.

You shouldn't get a law named after you until your dead, IMO.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/when-i-crea...arning-1562126

Godwin's law: As an online discussion continues, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches 1

Based on my own early experience of online arguments, I had come up with this mock "law," which was meant to have the sound and seeming inevitability of a law of physics or mathematics: "As an online discussion continues, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches 1."

I admit to being a bit of a prankster about this — I knew as a writer that if I could say something memorable about internet culture it was entirely possible for the memorable thing to take on a life of its own, propagated by the internet itself. After a bit of judicious promoting by me in the early internet discussion forums (notably Usenet), Godwin's Law took flight on its own in the early 1990s. Like a smartphone alarm I've forgotten to turn off, it pops up startlingly from time to time when I least expect it.

This happened on May 4 when it was announced that "CuriousGnu" – a blogger who shares with me an ongoing curiosity about numbers and statistical data –had blogged that "78% of Reddit Threads With 1000+ Comments Mention Nazis".

This finding didn't surprise me, exactly — when I came up with Godwin's Law, I based it to a large degree on my experiences in the 1980s with computer bulletin-board systems. Reddit, which has hundreds of millions of users, is in many ways like those 1980s bulletin-board systems — only, of course, millions of times larger. So one might guess than anything I'd seen on systems with dozens of users would certainly occur on systems with tens or hundreds of millions.

But CuriousGnu, who is righly cautious about overgeneralising from a few passes at Reddit's massive and admirably public dataset, was careful to state expressly that he was not attempting to prove or Godwin's Law, despite how his analysis is being reported.

Earlier analysts have not been so circumspect; a physicist named Travis Hoppe argued only last year that his analysis of Reddit data disproved the law. Like CuriousGnu, Hoppe likely surpasses me in mathematical skill, but (as I told him when he asked me about it on Twitter), the purpose of Godwin's Law was never to be predictive — instead, I designed the law to create a disincentive for frivolous or reflexive Hitler or Nazi comparisons so that, when we do feel compelled to make them in our arguments, we are more likely to be mindful about them.

But the fact is, I designed Godwin's Law not to be predictive, but to be "memetic" — not to show that debates would invariably become overheated but to spur debaters to invoke history mindfully, with deeper analysis rather than with glib allusion, because that's the way for a speaker or writer to show that he or she is not taking the easy rhetorical path.

In order for the law to function this way, it needed simultaneously to "seem" scientific and yet function as a kind of negative inspiration (in effect, it hints at an ethical rule, not a scientific principle). And even if Godwin's Law does not always succeed in inspiring mindfulness, I hope it functions at least occasionally as a kind of unexpected "smart alarm" in today's heated political debates.

[Elim Garak]

So he's basically like Hitler

[Ilir]

too long, didn't read.

Infracted - minor spam

[OreoLover]

0 to 1 in 1 post

[Thomasyo4]

So he's basically like Hitler

I did Nazi that coming

[Jokerfiend]

So what, you could say that about anything really. If a conversation is reached epic proportions, then something is bound to reach into the discussion.

[boberino]

Intent doesn't matter; just like when the Nazis intended to make the world a better place.

[nomorepriest]

Congrats on having a law named After you! That is a feat!! All these bitches are salty.
Congrats man!

[Ilir]

Why are people proud of a short attention span and lack of comprehensive skills that they even need to post about it?

Funny you mention "lack of comprehensive skills" when nowhere did I say or indicated I was proud of not reading the text.

I didn't read the fucking thing because on a forum like this, I expect people to write a little summary of the text and not just copy/paste it.

Chill.

[ro9ue]

Nowhere has this been more evident than reading liberal arguments about Trump. You go to extremes to make your point and you've lost the argument. People need to stay reasonable to win over someone else logically.

[boberino]

Funny you mention "lack of comprehensive skills" when nowhere did I say or indicated I was proud of not reading the text.

I didn't read the fucking thing because on a forum like this, I expect people to write a little summary of the text and not just copy/paste it.

Chill.

Summary of the article: "Hi, I'm Godwin...you may know me from Godwin's Law. I don't like how it's being applied...wouaaa wouaaa wu wu wouaaaaa."

[Powerogue]

It is pretty darn ironic that, by making up that tongue in cheek law, it seems to have propagated the effect even further.

But the fact is, I designed Godwin's Law not to be predictive, but to be "memetic" — not to show that debates would invariably become overheated but to spur debaters to invoke history mindfully, with deeper analysis rather than with glib allusion, because that's the way for a speaker or writer to show that he or she is not taking the easy rhetorical path.

Well he succeeded at the meme part, but I think he failed to realize that just means it becomes even more widespread and makes people eventually forget the original joke entirely.

[lonely zergling]

He is basically like Stalin. Hah I found someone worse than hitler! I won.

[Deleted]

I did Nazi that coming

You must have been Russian to make that joke, but Anne Frankly you anschlussed my sides, which are now in orbit thanks to the Nazi German space program.

[Independent voter]

It always seem to me to be the insult of last resort.

"Oh yeah?! Well you're a-- you're a big-- you're a Nazi!"

It's like the worst thing you can say about someone without swearing.

[Breccia]

I did Nazi that coming

Groan...that was too much of a pun for mein kampfort.

[Puupi]

It always seem to me to be the insult of last resort.

"Oh yeah?! Well you're a-- you're a big-- you're a Nazi!"

It's like the worst thing you can say about someone without swearing.

Really? I don't even consider being called a Nazi as an insult. When someone uses Nazi as an insult, it's most likely just an indication of him/her not having a fucking clue what s/he is talking about.

[Bryntrollian]

So he's basically like Hitler

Literally Hitler, I'd say

[Deleted]

"And even if Godwin's Law does not always succeed in inspiring mindfulness, I hope it functions at least occasionally as a kind of unexpected "smart alarm" in today's heated political debates. "

The practical effect has to be make it far easier for neo-nazis who can simply invoke this rule as a form of right-wing political correctness to silence criticism. It has served the far right very well to be able to marginalize comparisons with Hitler's rise, something that would have been impossible even as late as 1990.

[Thomasyo4]

Groan...that was too much of a pun for mein kampfort.

Frankly, I'm fuhrer-ious that I stooped so low