MacGougan at Large
Notes on Laws That Aren't Really Laws - 5
Godwin’s Law - All Online Chats End Up in Nazi-ville
Mike Godwin is an American attorney and author who, in 1990, promulgated the following: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
Saying that a probability approaches one, by the way, is just a fancy way of saying that it’s increasingly a sure bet to happen.
At the time he wrote this, he was concerned about a tendency to trivialize the historical reality of Hitler and the Nazis by invoking them as an analogy for any political figure or movement that one disagrees with.
In recent years, however, Godwin has had to clarify his intent because of the emergence of significant political actors who either openly or winkingly borrow from the Nazi playbook. When we see a stiff-arm salute or hear a phrase like “immigrants are poisoning the blood of the nation” - is it appropriate to point out the Nazi background of such things?
Actually, says Godwin, it’s perfectly appropriate to make comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis when such comparisons are accurate. His law wasn’t meant to suggest that all such comparisons are lazy name-calling.
So there are two competing ideas here that I try to keep in my head at the same time.
The first idea is that our political discourse is degraded by the use of exaggerated labels. Every politician who’s in favor of school vouchers isn’t a fascist, and every politician who thinks government programs should help people who actually need help isn’t a communist.
The second idea is that sometimes a strong label fits. Sadly, there are elements in our body politic and in our government that deserve to be compared to - and sometimes maybe even aspire to be compared to - Hitler and the Nazis.
The comments we receive here at MacGougan at Large have never yet devolved into Nazi name-calling. Admittedly, the sample size is not large, but I like to think that our subscribers are a classy bunch who save such epithets for actual Nazis.
