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Politics > General Election 2011 and Godwin's Law

  • 07-02-2011 1:02am
    #1
    johnnyskeleton
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 14,550 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Following from this thread:

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70507231

    Might I suggest specific rules on Godwin's Law in the general election forum? I can see there being many more instances of people talking about various parties as Nazi's or bringing up Hitler comparisons.

    Not that I'm a particular fan of the United Left Alliance or Sinn Fein. In fact, the same could probably be said of other words that are meaningless in the modern world such as blueshirt etc.
    Post edited by Shield on


Comments

  • #2
    sceptre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,608 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    The much misunderstood Godwin's Law (I'm not implying you misunderstand it btw) states merely that as an internet discussion gets longer, the probability of a Nazi comparison tends towards one. In other words, the longer a discussion goes on, it's more likely that someone's going to draw such a comparison.

    In the discussion to which you've linked, the Nazi thing is dropped into the very first post so I'm not sure how Godwin's Law could apply.

    But, as a general thing, Nazi comparisons aren't brought up in Politics an awful lot, nowhere near where I'd see it as a problem. Personally, I usually find them indicative of hysteria and merely pointing out that someone's made a laughable comparison with Nazi Germany (where someone has made a laughable comparison with Nazi Germany) is usually enough to put someone back in their box. Where it happens and where it's appropriate to do so.

    Do you honestly think we need to legislate for this (that's an open question btw)? One swallow doesn't make a porno after all and I haven't seen it happen an awful lot.


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