From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 15:04:53 PST
To: still@kailua.colorado.edu (James Still)
Subject: Re: Nazis/Privacy/Cypherpunks
In-Reply-To: <2CD5431A@kailua.colorado.edu>
Message-ID: <199311011604.AA29446@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



This seems as good a time as any to remind folks of Godwin's Law, which
represents one of my earliest net.meme.hacks:

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Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies: As an online discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
----


--Mike


P.S. You may also be interested in the corollaries, which shed some useful
light on the dynamics of online discussions:

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 USENET discussion touches on homosexuality
or Heinlein, Nazis or Hitler are mentioned within three days.