# How would a Discussion be Godwinized before 1933? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526 "2017-07-31T19:02:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/1 "2017-07-31T19:02:37Z")
I don’t think this is a Debate or even a general question, but how were ultimate evil comparisons made before 1933? Oliver Cromwell? Richard III? Star Chambers? Robespierre? Napoleon? Maybe all the way back to Nero? I remember somebody being called a beardless Nero, but I can’t remember who. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/2 "2017-07-31T19:14:02Z")
Attila the Hun? ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/3 "2017-07-31T19:14:06Z")
In the US and Europe, the embodiment of evil would have been The Kaiser (Frederick William Victor Albert, Kaiser of Germany and King of Prussia) and/or “The Hun” (the Germans, not Attila). ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/4 "2017-07-31T19:15:43Z")
Yes, Napoleon was a good one, in English speaking countries. Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun were trotted out as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/5 "2017-07-31T19:53:57Z")
Or the devil. ---
**Author:** ![Ispolkom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@Ispolkom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ispolkom)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/6 "2017-08-01T21:50:10Z")
Depends on the time and prejudices of the audience. Before 1933? Communists. Or the Catholics. Before 1914? Anarchists, maybe. Trade unionists, especially the Wobblies. Atheists. Or, well, the Catholics. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/7 "2017-08-01T21:54:04Z")
Every book I’ve read from the 19th century, from Europe, mentions Napoleon. I’ve often mentioned that he seems to have been the Hitler of his time (in terms of, “that dude who everything should be compared to”, not in terms of, “the true face of evil”.) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/8 "2017-08-01T22:21:25Z")
For Christians, Judas. Alternately, “the Jews.” ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/9 "2017-08-01T23:48:53Z")
“Pharaoh” often stood for a cruel, unjust, tyrannical ruler - especially before Napoleon’s time. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/10 "2017-08-02T01:10:09Z")
A thread from 2009 that garnered some of the same responses: [Godwin’s law before the Nazis](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501074) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/11 "2017-08-02T01:47:06Z")
You know who else liked to play the fiddle? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/12 "2017-08-02T11:51:10Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > A thread from 2009 that garnered some of the same responses: [Godwin’s law before the Nazis](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501074) There needs to be some sort of citable “law” denoting this quirk of discussion. “Simpson’s Did It Infinitum” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/13 "2017-08-02T12:04:35Z")
No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/14 "2017-08-02T12:08:26Z")
Waving the bloody shirt ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/15 "2017-08-02T14:13:40Z")
Minor nitpick: 1933 wouldn’t be the cutoff year, Hitler wasn’t considered exceptionally bad at that time - he was an authoritarian ruler who was pushing back at Britain and France and treating the Jews about as badly as Americans treated blacks. Lots of people didn’t like him, but it wasn’t unthinkable to be a fan of him (like Henry Ford was) and he didn’t really stand out from a lot of other similar figures. It wasn’t until he started a world war and evidence of death camps and mass executions came out that his name became the synonym for ‘as evil as you can get’ that it is now, which was closer to 1943 than 1933. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/16 "2017-08-02T14:25:39Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > You know who else liked to play the fiddle? Charley Daniels, and he was born in 1936. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-a-discussion-be-godwinized-before-1933/792526/17 "2017-08-02T18:10:42Z")
No, it would have been Bolsheviks and not communists