What is Godwins Law?
Godwin’s Law is a natural law of Usenet named after Mike Godwin (godwin@eff.org) concerning Usenet “discussions”. It reads, according to the Jargon File: As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. • What does it mean? It pretty much means exactly what it says – as a Usenet thread goes on, the chances of somebody or something being compared to a Nazi approach one. • Yes, but what does it *mean*? Aah, now *there’s* the real question. In case your head has been buried in the sand for the last sixty years or so, the Nazis were a German political party lead by Adolf Hitler that slaughtered upwards of ten-million people that didn’t meet their standards of “ethnic purity” and set off to conquer Europe and the world in World War II. They are generally considered the most evil group of people to live in modern times, and to compare something or someone to them is usually considered the gravest insult imaginable. As a Usenet dis
