Thursday, August 04, 2005

What?

So there's this thing called Godwin's Law. Briefly put, it states that:


As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
approaches one. There is a tradition in many groups that,
once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned
the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in
progress.


For a fuller definition, see here.

I find that this law can be expanded beyond Usenet. Whenever I see or hear someone reaching for such a comparision in just about any context I almost always assume they know, deep down, that they're wrong.

Or at the very least, that I should treat anything and everything they say with great, great suspicion. Which brings me to this little item:

James C. Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, compared embryonic stem cell research with Nazi experiments conducted on live human patients during and prior to the Holocaust.


It's a real simple rule. When someone reaches for the Nazi comparison, you know they have no really convincing argument.

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