Even Mike Godwin

[edhopper]

would call Trump a Nazi.

[csziggy]

1. The Story Behind Godwin's Law

Horn: The story behind Godwin's Law

David Horn is a retired engineer living in Moneta, who spent his fair share of time on Usenet. Jul 14, 2018

Long before Facebook, Myspace, blogs and vlogs, before internet forums or even threaded comment sections on webpages, there was Usenet. In 1990, a then very young lawyer named Mike Godwin wrote what has become one of the guiding rules for internet-based discussions: Godwin’s Law.

Usenet was the direct predecessor to the World Wide Web, dating to 1979 — two decades before the web existed. For those interested in a ramble through history, Usenet was (and still can be) accessed through email applications like cc:mail and Outlook Express, but more properly through dedicated Newsreaders. There were no web browsers then. There was no web. But there were Usenet Newsgroups for just about all interests — politics being one of the most popular.

Prior to the age of web protocols, discussions on Usenet were strictly text based and limited to standard keyboard characters. If you wanted emojis, you had to create your own ;-}. Forget posting photos, videos or even fundamental graphics … unless they could be formed from keyboard characters, of course. So ultimately, discussions were easily misconstrued. With the exception of the rules of Netiquette, there were limited ways to indicate emotion or tamp it down. Thus nearly all serious political discussions would eventually degrade into name-calling and references to Hitler.

Godwin’s contribution was a rule that declared Hitler more or less off limits. The original Law read: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” It was intended as a warning, not a rule. As time went on, others added corollaries that gave the rule teeth, of sorts. The most common was Usenet specific: when Hitler or Nazis are first mentioned in a discussion, the thread will be closed immediately and the poster citing Hitler declared the loser.

More: https://roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/horn-the-story-behind-godwins-law/article_2d0681e2-d7ba-565e-858c-15ba00efa126.html

[edhopper]

2. Cool

but my point stands

[csziggy]

3. I was just about to edit the entry from the article to include this passage

In December 2015, Godwin commented on the Nazi and fascist comparisons being made by several articles on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying: “If you’re thoughtful about it and show some real awareness of history, go ahead and refer to Hitler when you talk about Trump, or any other politician.”

I meant to put that instead of just the history behind Goodwin's Law.

[johnp3907]

4. No exaggeration.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/godwin-s-law-mike-godwin-internet-hitler-charlottesville-virginia-donald-trump-a7892171.html?amp