Sometimes, there really are Nazis...

My thoughts about Godwin's Law, etc. First, the "law" itself:


Godwin's law

Godwin's law (also Godwin's rule of Nazi analogies) is
an adage in Internet culture that was originated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law
states that:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
There is a
tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is
over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument
was in progress. In addition, it is considered poor form to invoke the law
explicitly. Godwin's law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper
bound on thread length in those groups. Many people understand Godwin's law to
mean this, although (as is clear from the statement of the law above) this is
not the original formulation.
Nevertheless, there
is also a widely-recognized codicil that
any intentional invocation of Godwin's law for its thread-ending effects will be
unsuccessful.

(Thanks to Wikipedia)



I remember mouthing off to a high school English teacher who was trying to get me to take Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" seriously. She explained it was really about the greatest sin since Hitlerism - namely, McCarthyism. You see, kiddies, it's not about the Salem witch trials, it's about how peace loving people of good conscience were (and are) persecuted in Amerika because of their beliefs. They are called commies, reds, and pinkos and accused of betraying their country when all they want to do is make the world a better place.

Smartass that I was, I said, "You know, sometimes there really are witches".

Everybody knows leftists love to call their opponents Nazis and Fascists while everyone to the right of the late two-wheeler aficionado Che Guevara can be safely compared to Hitler. In college, I was called a fascist for wearing a Solidarnosc pin on my jacket. So, yes, I am wary when I hear such words used.

But on the other hand... Live from Germany! Real Nazis under 1oo years of age. But of course, you say, they are German after all.

Does a British university teacher's union boycott of Israeli universities strike you as a Nazi tactic? Don't you smell even the faintest wiff of fascism?

Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. What about the way Terri Schiavo was murdered?

Yes, Virginia, there really are Nazis.

Maybe I should ride the Wayback Machine to 1930's Germany and see what I can see.



To be continued...