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Honestly, I wish the Godwin moratorium would end. The lessons of Nazi Germany are not that Germans in the 1930s were the most evil persons in history, making it
by lukifer 13y ago
Honestly, I wish the Godwin moratorium would end. The lessons of Nazi Germany are not that Germans in the 1930s were the most evil persons in history, making it erroneous and offensive to compare anyone else to them. In fact, it's quite the opposite: the lesson is that all humans have the capacity for extreme evil when it is socially normalized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem#The_banality_of_evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem#The_banal...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo#The_Lucifer_Effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo#The_Lucifer_Eff...
- busterarm 13y agoMoratoriums on topics of conversation only tend to exist when people understand the terms in meanings that are directly and completely contradictory. Your statement highlights this point quite nicely because yes, people believe that either "Nazis were the most evil people ever" or "Everyone is just as evil as the Nazis given the right circumstance/context." There are similar problems with topics like "fascism", "socialism", "patriotism", "freedom", "morals" and "religious belief"..and even Godwin's law itself. Following that, willingness to discuss these topics is usually a sign of either incredible intellect or incredible stupidity. Also, congratulations for not appearing stupid. I too do not find for Godwin's Law too favorably.
- maxerickson 13y agoOh come on, don't pat yourself on the back for not liking Godwin's law when you haven't even bothered to understand what he was saying. It's criticism of people who resort to screaming Hitler when it is not warranted! That idiots have used an observation to shout down conversations is not the fault of the observer.
- busterarm 13y agoWell, for sure. I understand what he was saying and I don't even disagree. I'm just stating plainly that people use Godwin's Law in exactly the manner as what he was criticizing to begin with. It's just become another tool to ruin conversations.
- mindcrime 13y agoThere is no moratorium, and "Godwin's Law" is just some guy's pithy observation. It doesn't mean shit in the end. As far as I'm concerned, anybody "invoking Godwin's Law" should be downvoted to the 9th circle of Hell. shrug
- sizzle 13y agoI like the way you think
- sizzle 13y agoI like the way you think
- sizzle 13y agoI like the way you think
- ZoFreX 13y agoPeople say "invoking Godwin's law" as if that person is demanding the conversation halt there - but I very rarely see this happen in practice. It's simply an observation. "Oh, we compared them to the Nazis". In decent discussion fora such as this one I almost never see an associated suggestion that the argument is invalid, or that discussion should end.
- lukifer 13y agoThere is an oft-cited corollary, sometimes misunderstood as part of Godwin's Law itself, that whoever brings up Nazis first automatically loses the argument. In practice, it really does shut down discussion amongst even otherwise intelligent people, usually by preventing people from making comparisons in the first place.