[Vision2020] Re: Chas on Godwin

[Chasuk]

On 12/29/05, Phil Nisbet <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I have not called anybody a Nazi.  I have noted that Heisenberg was indeed
> one.  I have noted that advocates of using the Uncertainty Principle outside
> of its probablisitic mathematical model for quantum mechanics have indeed
> used it to justify genocide.

I know that you didn't call anybody a Nazi.  I'm glad that you didn't
call anybody a Nazi.  I'm disappointed that others have been so quick
in their accusations against you.  Still, I can't dismiss their
concerns as glibly as I would like, because you have given them
ammunition.

If Heisenberg were noted primarily for his Nazism, and Nazism was the
subject, it might be understandable to state: "Remember that Nazi,
Werner Heisenberg?  He also had an interesting theory called the
Uncertainty Principle."  However, If the Uncertainty Principle had
been conceived to justify Heisenberg's putative Aryan philosophies,
and the Uncertainty Principle was the subject, then I would argue that
his Nazism was irrelevant.  Opponents of a given topic will often
insert poisonous non sequiturs into the middle of otherwise reasonable
discourse.  It might appear to Nick and John D that you have done
this.  That's how it appears to me, to a degree.

If Adolph Hitler wrote a book on childcare, if it was good advice,
would it be tainted because Hitler was the author?