Godwin's Law (1990)

added Jul 02, 2009 at 05:50PM UTC

part of a series on Internet Slang

About / Definition

Godwin’s Law is an internet adage / behavioral observation that was first coined by Mike Godwin in 1990. This so-called law refers to one of the earliest bits of Usenet customs, which goes “if you mention Adolf Hitler or Nazis within a discussion thread, you’ve automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in.” For more information about Godwin’s Law, check out the original FAQ page.


Usage

While Godwin’s Law was originally conceived for the Usenet newsgroup discussions, the humorous rule remains just as applicable today in any threaded online discussion, such as message boards, chat rooms, comment threads and wiki talk pages. Since the dawn of online discussions, Godwin’s Law has been used as an indicator of whether a thread has gone on too long, who’s playing fair and who’s just slinging mud and who finally gets to “win” the discussion.

Examples

  • In 2007, Slashdot noted that Godwin’s Law affected an ongoing, highly public dispute between Linux author Linus Torvalds and the GNOME project.
  • A May 2007 issue of Randall Munroe’s webcomic xkcd anachronistically portrays Allied officers trying to discuss Axis military tactics, but being interrupted by Godwin’s Law.
  • Similarly, a November 2007 issue of Jeph Jacques’s webcomic Questionable Content, entitled “Godwin Wars”, referenced (and contrasted) Godwin’s law and the reductio ad Hitlerum.
  • In October 2007 issue, Wired published a “Geekipedia” piece that includes an entry for “Godwin’s law” among “people, place, ideas, and trends you need to know now”.
  • By 2007, The Economist had declared that “a good rule in most discussions is that the first person to call the other a Nazi automatically loses the argument.”

Notable Corollaries

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10 Comments

norsehorse89
Jul 02, 2009 at 11:11PM UTC , norsehorse89 wrote:

uploaded xkcd’s take on the matter: Regarding Mussolini

Paracosmos
Jul 03, 2009 at 06:36AM UTC , Paracosmos wrote:

Objection!

Godwin’s law is not a meme because memes has no laws.

Chris Menning
Jul 03, 2009 at 06:20PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Anyone objecting to the meme-status of Godwin’s Law is a Nazi.

Paracosmos
Jul 03, 2009 at 06:31PM UTC , Paracosmos wrote:
Tylord14
Jul 08, 2009 at 10:49PM UTC , Tylord14 wrote:

this thread has been godwin’d

kikinak
Jul 16, 2009 at 03:24AM UTC , kikinak wrote:

i bring up that peta compared animal testing to the Holocaust.

NOTE: i am extremely anti peta and for animal testing.

mongooseondaloose
Aug 17, 2009 at 01:11AM UTC , mongooseondaloose wrote:

Technically, if the definition states “approaches 1”, shouldn’t the graph look a bit different. Wouldn’t it look more like the graph of the function f(x)=(-1/x)+1? It approaches 1, but allows for a hypothetical ever-expanding thread. I’m not meaning to be an over-critical prick, I’m just kind of a geek =p

prokadae
Sep 20, 2009 at 04:20AM UTC , prokadae wrote:

hmmmm…looks at graph sideways
can you repeat the question?

Badgerfrank10
Nov 06, 2009 at 03:22AM UTC , Badgerfrank10 wrote:

LOL, yeah

Brad Kim
Feb 09, 2010 at 02:15AM UTC , Brad Kim wrote:

totally right. replaced the graph, thanks for pointing it out^^

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