From: Mike Godwin Subject: Godwin's Law Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 13:39:39 -0500 (EST) Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies [a.k.a the Sexton-Godwin Law]: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. [Usenet Message-ID: <1991Aug18.215029.19421@eff.org>, 18 Aug 1991; possibly posted in this form as early as 1990 on The WELL.] Morgan's Corollary: As soon as such a comparison occurs, someone will start a Nazi-discussion spinoff thread on alt.censorship. The Sircar/Case Corollary: If the USENET discussion touches on homosexuality or Heinlein, Nazis or Hitler are mentioned within three days. [This has been credited to both Sircar and Case, whose full names no one appears to recall.] Van der Leun's Corollary: As global connectivity improves, the probability of actual Nazis being on the net approaches one. [Long proven quite true.] Miller's Paradox: As a network evolves, the number of Nazi comparisons not forestalled by citation to Godwin's Law converges to zero. Quirk's Exception: Intentional invocation of Godwin's Law is ineffectual. Bentsen's [highly fallacious] Defense: Not this time. I know Mike Godwin. Mike Godwin is a friend of mine. You're no Mike Godwin. [Named for Senator Lloyd Bentsen's "You're no Jack Kennedy" line from the 1988 vice-presidential debates. A.k.a. Cooley's Defense, after the original poster.] [Gordon's Restatement of] Newman's Corollary: Libertarianism (pro, con, and internal faction fights) is *the* primordial netnews discussion topic. Anytime the debate shifts somewhere else, it must eventually return to this fuel source. ********** Cf. the related but more general Wilcox-McCandlish Law of Online Discourse Evolution (and Corollaries): http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Folklore/Humor/wilcox-mccandlish.law Cf. also Benford's Law of Controvery: Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available. - Gregory Benford, 1980. ********** Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny Subject: Trial of the Century to end soon From: chesler`-at-`@sunspot.tiac.net (David Chesler) Keywords: topical, smirk, USENET Approved: funny-request`-at-`clari.net Message-ID: Date: Fri, 29 Sep 95 3:20:13 EDT We can be assured that the OJ Simpson trial will be ending soon, as defense attorney Johnny Cochrane has invoked Godwin's Law by likening Detective Mark Furhman to Adolph Hitler -- so no further rational discourse is possible. ********** Date: Sun, 25 Sep 94 13:55:15 est From: "Chris G. Topher Hughes" To: mnemonic`-at-`EFF.ORG Subject: Godwin's Law on Muds [...] Godwin's law [...] was probably imported from Usenet, but it's mutated to: "Anytime the players outnumber the wizards by 3 to 1 or more, at least one wizard will be accused of being a fascist with delusions of grandeur" I've heard it on 3 or 4 different MUDs now. Thought you'd like to know it's spreading more. Topher Hughes ********** "Godwin's Law? Isn't that the law that states that once a discussion reaches a comparison to Nazis or Hitler, its usefulness is over?" - Cliff Stoll ("Cuckoo's Egg" author), ca. 1994 ********** The alleged original formulation: "You can tell when a USENET discussion is getting old when one of the participants drags out Hitler and the Nazis." - Richard Sexton (http://www.vrx.net/richard/) stating, in essence, what would later become "codified" as Godwin's Law, Usenet Message-ID: <21000@gryphon.COM>, 16 Oct 1989 ********** Godwin's Law has also been (perhaps excessively explanatorily) reformulated in the Net.Legends FAQ as "Usenet Rule #4": Any off-topic mention of Hitler or Nazis will doom the thread it is mentioned in to an irrelevant and off-topic end very soon; every thread on UseNet has a constantly-increasing probability to contain such a mention. ********** Mike Godwin's "Wired" magazine article about "Godwin's Law" and memes on the net: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html