What is Godwin’s Law?

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**Bababam** (1:04)
What is Godwin's Law?
Thanks for asking.
The events of the Holocaust are part of the compulsory curriculum in many countries across the world, especially in Europe. Indeed, it's pretty rare to come across any adult who hasn't heard of the unique horrors that took place. Most people would agree that comparing recent COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination campaigns to Nazi atrocities is at best extreme and misguided, at worst disrespectful and downright offensive. But that's exactly what some politicians and members of the public have done during recent protests.
This is an example of an adage known as Godwin's Law, which originated on an internet forum in 1990 It reads as follows, As an online discussion continues, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches one. Approaches one, huh? What does that even mean?
One means 100% in this context. So Mike Godwin, the American lawyer and author behind the deliberately pseudo-scientific law was effectively saying the longer a discussion went on, the more likely it was someone would end up mentioning Hitler or the Nazis. It built on the Latin expression reductio ad hitlerum, which emerged in the 1950s. The person making the comparison might think they were being clever by putting forward an argument which would trump all others. But Godwin was really drawing attention to how easily some posters defaulted to that line of argument, despite its outrageous nature. Often this would devalue the debate itself. He created his law in reference to discussions on newsnet newsgroups, but it can also apply to any form of online or offline media coverage, as well as real life situations like the COVID-19 protests. Furthermore, Nazi comparisons are often made on a range of subjects. It just so happens that COVID-19 restrictions are the latest prominent example. So who are these people comparing COVID-19 rules to the Holocaust? Well, it's been more widespread than you might think. In the south of France, a billboard operator recently created a banner depicting the country's president, Emmanuel Macron, as Adolf Hitler, alongside the slogan, Obey, Get Vaccinated. Meanwhile, Irish politician, Matty McGrath, came under strong criticism for repeated comments of this nature. Here's one excerpt from a discussion in parliament, as shared by radio broadcast and news talk.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:33)
We're meant to be coming out of the crisis, and we're meant to be opening up, and this is what the government read. Control, control. That happened in Germany in 1933, and that's how it started.

**Bababam** (3:42)
Of course, in addition to such high-profile examples, there have been countless other cases of similar hyperbole among street protesters, or in online discussions. Is Godwin's Law really still relevant in the 21st century? The internet has evolved a lot since Godwin's Law was created. In the age of social media, everyone has a voice online for better and for worse. In 2018, the LA Times published an opinion piece entitled Do we need to update Godwin's Law about the probability of comparison to Nazis? The author, you might be wondering, Mike Godwin himself. He was writing in response to comments likening the Trump administration's border policy, which controversially saw immigrants separated from their children, to the treatment of Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust. His conclusion, it still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism, but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren't. But Godwin's law was never meant to block us from challenging the institutionalization of cruelty, or the callousness of officials who claim to be just following the law.
There you have it.
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