I'm gobsmacked that this post seems to be necessary: A Presentation of Godwin's Law: [View all]
I've always liked to believe that members of DU generally have a higher education level, were more intelligent, and were more well informed than the average person. However, recently it has become increasingly common practice among some people to not just compare their discussion partners to Nazis, but to directly identify them as such. Before now, I've just put these unfortunate, unfounded accusations down to nothing more than the standard DU hyperbole & have dismissed them.
Unhappily, it seems I was mistaken. I am distressed to report that there are DUers who not only make these accusations sincerely and without any trace of humor, but they really & truly believe their opponents are unapologetic member of the Third Reich.
<== Me being gobsmacked.
And so it is my sad duty to compose this article (or at least copy&paste bits from Wikipedia):
Godwin's law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies) is an assertion made by Mike Godwin in 1990 that has become an Internet adage. It states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." In other words, Godwin said that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.
Although in one of its early forms Godwin's law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions, the law is now often applied to any threaded online discussion, such as forums, chat rooms and blog comment threads, and has been invoked for the inappropriate use of Nazi analogies in articles or speeches.
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Corollaries and usage
There are many corollaries to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself) than others. For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress.
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more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
So if you happen to feel inclined to start tossing around epithets of "Nazi", or "Quisling", or "Stalin" or "Stasi" or any such similar unlikely and unfounded identities when talking about your fellow DUers, Democrats in good standing - including Democratic members of the House of Representatives or the Senate, and the current staff of the Obama Administration - including the President and the Vice President, please remember that such a revelation will expose you as an unreliable fool.
Just to be clear: President Barack Obama is not a Nazi. Members of his Administration are not Nazis. I would hazard to guess great majority of the people working in the Federal Government are not Nazis.
And no, none of your fellow DUers are Nazis either.
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