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Godwin's law

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Guy Macon

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Oct 25, 2008, 12:48:13 AM10/25/08
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CJM wrote:

>And for that matter I am out too. I'll call Guy a Nazi - now
>someone can invoke Godwin and we can all get on with our lives.
>Or more likely, just start arguing on another thread.

Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) states:

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a
comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

CJM is arrempting to invoke the corollary once such a comparison
is made, the Usenet thread is finished and whoever mentioned the
Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.

Alas for CJM (mind if I just call you "Chris?") making suxch a
comparison in order to end the thread invokes Quirk's Exception,
which says that all such ulterior-motive invocations of Godwin
will be unsuccessful.


References:

How to post about Nazis and get away with it - the Godwin's Law FAQ
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/

The Jargon File: Godwin's Law
http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/G/Godwins-Law.html

Meme, Counter-meme By Mike Godwin
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html


I hope this helps...


--
Guy Macon
<http://www.GuyMacon.com/>

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