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Godwin's law
in view of all the censorship discussion a little while ago (:
it rather follows the trend, in case anyone was worried that OTR list
might be ...um.... not normal.
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What is Godwin's Law?
Godwin's Law
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison
involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Corollary of Practicality
There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, the thread is
over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever
argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the
existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups.
Gordon's Restatement of Newman's Corollary to Godwin's Law
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.
Morgan's Corollary to Godwin's Law
As soon as such a comparison occurs, someone will start a Nazi-discussion
spinoff thread on alt.censorship.
Sircar's Corollary
If the online discussion touches on homosexuality or Heinlein, Nazis or
Hitler are mentioned within three days.
Van der Leun's Corollary
As global connectivity improves, the probability of actual Nazis being on
the Net approaches one.
Miller's Paradox
As a network evolves, the number of Nazi comparisons not forestalled by
citation to Godwin's Law converges to zero.
--
Anything that happens happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something
else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening,
causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn't necessarily do it in
chronological order, though. Douglas Adams
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