Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics,
its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who
glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about
the Holocaust.
-- Mike Godwin, on "Godwin's Law", originated in 1990, which (paraphrasing)
states that any online discussion will eventually devolve into a
comparison with Hitler or Nazism. At that point, the person who brought
either topic up has lost the argument and their basic credibility.
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