Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Godwin repeals Godwin's Law

Anyone familiar with the broken, heavily censored Usenet knows that Godwin's Law is about the only thing Usenetters care about. Anyone who accurately compares modern right-wing policies with those of Nazi Germany is shouted down by 100 posts bellowing, "G0DW1N'S LAW!!!!!!!!!!"

Godwin's Law was devised in 1990 by one Mike Godwin, and it seems to have been originally designed as sort of a meme - not a rigid fiat. The adage claims that as an Internet discussion grows, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 100%. It was only later that Usenet began using harassment to enforce it as a policy.

Of course, Godwin's Law wasn't invoked when Jim Bunning laughably compared a political opponent to Hitler, but that's another story entirely.

Now, the bottomless extremism of the Trump regime and the alt-right have resulted in Godwin's Law being officially repealed by none other than Mike Godwin himself. Godwin reportedly said on Twitter: "By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you."

Interestingly, Godwin - an attorney from Texas - helped challenge the far-right Communications Decency Act, which was part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The reactionary Telecommunications Act helped enable those who invoked Godwin's Law to censor everyone else. The legislation itself was full of provisions borrowed from Nazi Germany.

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