Bernie Sanders Storms CNBC and Slams The Sick Greed Of Wall Street

[HughBeaumont]

86. Geeez, is Argumentum ad Hitlerum now a synched talking point among conservatives?

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_Hitlerum

How it works

“It's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, except there's just one degree, and Kevin Bacon is Hitler!"

—Lewis Black

Godwin’s Law does not dispute the validity or otherwise of references or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. As such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate in a discussion, Godwin has argued that overuse of the Nazi comparison should be avoided as it waters down the impact of any valid usage. In its purest sense, the rule has more to do with completely losing one's sense of proportion rather than just mentioning Nazis specifically.[2][3] The law was initiated as a counter-meme to flippant comparisons to the Nazis, rather than to invoke a complete ban on comparisons. As Mike Godwin wrote himself in 2008:[4]

“When I saw the photographs from Abu Ghraib, for example, I understood instantly the connection between the humiliations inflicted there and the ones the Nazis imposed upon death camp inmates—but I am the one person in the world least able to draw attention to that valid comparison."

With the increase in the number of media for online discussion, Godwin's Law is now applied to any online discussion — be they mailing lists, message boards, forums, chat rooms, blog comment threads, or wiki talk pages.

Traditionally in many Internet discussion forums, it is the rule that once such a comparison is made, the discussion is effectively finished and whoever mentioned Hitler or the Nazis has automatically lost the debate, though it is considered sort-of acceptable if one immediately says "Pardon me for invoking Godwin's Law." The blogosphere has only heightened the prevalence of Godwin's Law with Nazi references being dropped across the political spectrum such as the liberal Daily Kos or right-wing religious strongholds such as Bill Donohue's Catholic League and intelligent design advocates like the Discovery Institute.

Compared to other known blog-based laws, namely Poe's Law, Godwin's Law is quite well known in more mainstream areas.[5] Just to prove it, the law even has its own Wikipedia article.[6] In 2012 it was added to the Oxford Dictionary,[7] which means that in 500 years' time it will be reviewed by completely mystified college arts majors.

So now, even our most "esteemed journalists" are operating at average internet simian level. Classic.