# Godwin's Law **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896 "2005-01-15T19:45:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/1 "2005-01-15T19:45:46Z")
From the context in which this term is used, I know this to be the practice of comparing an adversary or adversarial viewpoint to Hitler or Nazism. What is the origin of this phrase? Who’s Godwin? I tried searching General Questions for this term, but found no threads. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/2 "2005-01-15T19:51:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Godwin’s law is named after Mike Godwin, who was legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the early 1990s, when the law was first popularized. > **[Godwin's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law)** > > Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies, is an Internet adage asserting that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1. In less mathematical terms, the longer the discussion, the more likely a Nazi comparison becomes, and with long enough discussions, it is a certainty. > Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally refer... ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/3 "2005-01-15T19:53:45Z")
[Godwin on Godwin’s Law](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if.html) [Wikipedia on Godwin’s Law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/4 "2005-01-15T19:54:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Godwin’s law is named after Mike Godwin, who was legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the early 1990s, when the law was first popularized. Richard Sexton maintains that the law is a formalization of his October 16, 1989 [post](http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=21000%40gryphon.COM&output=gplain). > > > [@](#): > > > > You can tell when a USENET discussion is getting old when one of the participents (sic) drags out Hitler and the Nazis. > > Strictly speaking, however, this is not so, since the actual text of Godwin’s law does not state that such a reference or comparison makes a discussion “old,” or, for that matter, that such a reference or comparison means that a discussion is over. > > Finding the meme of Nazi comparisons on Usenet illogical and offensive, Godwin established the law as a counter-meme. The law’s memetic function is not to end discussions (or even to classify them as “old”), but to make participants in a discussion more aware of whether a comparison to Nazis or Hitler is appropriate, or is simply a rhetorical overreach. from [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/5 "2005-01-15T19:55:22Z")
Well, I’d say that clears it all up then! :smack: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/6 "2005-01-15T20:01:01Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Well, I’d say that clears it all up then! :smack: 😃 Caveat: Godwin’s law specifically doesn’t apply to the case where one person is just tired of the discussion and wants to end it even if that means sabotaging his own side. If you try saying “oh you’re a Nazi, discussion over, I lose” it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godwins-law/284896/7 "2005-01-15T20:29:49Z")
Godwin’s law isn’t limited to the internet. In any heated discussion someone will eventually bring up the Nazis. I’ve seen it in my philosophy group at least twice. I wonder how people “Godwinized” discussions prior to 1930. Napoleon, maybe?