[Vision2020] Compassion for All Life

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Hi Dave,

Just to make sure that everyone knows Godwin's Law, I've appended the Wikipedia entry below, and just to make an important clarification, it was my opponent who injected Dr. Josef Mengele into the Vision's abortion debate.  

My response at that time was that my opponent, no matter how good his points were, had forfeited the argument, according to Godwin's Law.

Nick Gier

Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a mainstay of Internet culture, an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."[1]

Godwin's Law does not dispute whether, in a particular instance, a reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be apt. It is precisely because such a reference or comparison may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued,[2] that overuse of the Hitler/Nazi comparison should be avoided, as it robs the valid comparisons of their impact.

Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,[3] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki discussion pages.