On internet message boards, when a post that divides opinion gathers hundreds of comments, at some point someone tends to compare the other side to a dictator. And this happens even when the thread started out as a chat about restaurants or movies. There is a famous rule of thumb that sums up this pattern in a single sentence: ‘Godwin’s Law.’
Put simply, Godwin’s Law is an internet adage meaning that ‘as an online discussion grows longer, the probability that someone will compare an opponent or an argument to the Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.’ It is named after the American lawyer and author Mike Godwin, and its formal name is ‘Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies.’
In this article, we will look in turn at how Godwin’s Law came about, the meaning behind it, common misconceptions, and the lessons the law offers for online conversation.
Godwin’s Law: A Light on Where Long Arguments End Up
Where Did Godwin’s Law Come From?
This law was born in early online communities, before the internet became as widespread as it is today.
(1) An Observation from the Usenet Days
Godwin first put forward this law in 1990 in Usenet newsgroups, a network of topic-based discussion boards. He noticed that whatever the subject, once a discussion went on long enough, comparisons to the Nazis and Hitler almost always appeared.
(2) An Experiment Spread on Purpose
Godwin has said he created the sentence as a kind of meme experiment. He felt that casually tossed-off Nazi comparisons trivialized the weight of the Holocaust, and he hoped that if the idea of a ‘law’ caught on, such comparisons would become less common.
(3) Who Is Mike Godwin?
Godwin was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, and served as general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation from 2007 to 2010. He has worked on freedom of expression online for many years.
At first used only in Usenet discussions, the phrase later spread to internet forums, chat rooms, and social media comments, and even came to describe exaggerated comparisons in speeches and news articles.
What the Law Says and What It Doesn’t
Godwin’s Law sounds like a mathematical formula, but it is really a sentence built on observation and satire.
(1) A Statement of Probability
The heart of the law is that the longer a conversation goes on, the more likely such a comparison becomes. It wittily points out that if a conversation is long enough, any comparison at all is bound to show up at least once eventually.
(2) Its Relationship to a Logical Fallacy
This law is often mentioned together with ‘Reductio ad Hitlerum,’ which discredits an opponent’s argument by linking it to Hitler. The term was named by the political philosopher Leo Strauss in 1953 and refers to the fallacy of attacking an opponent by association alone rather than on the substance.
(3) An Adage That Made the Dictionary
Godwin’s Law became so widely used that in 2012 it was added as an entry to the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
So this law is not something that applies only to particular topics. It shows that even in discussions on completely different subjects, such as politics, sports, games, or cooking, extreme comparisons tend to pop up once a conversation drags on and emotions build up.
Common Misconceptions and Actual Research
Because it has spread so widely, it is also often used in ways that differ from its original meaning.
- Whoever brings it up loses (Loser Rule): Many forums have a tradition that once a Nazi comparison appears, the discussion is over and the side that made the comparison loses. This rule is sometimes called Godwin’s Law, but Godwin himself did not accept the law being used as a verdict rule to end debates.
- A ban on all comparisons (Total Ban): Godwin said that comparisons made after careful thought and judged to be valid are fine. The law is not a rule that forbids comparisons themselves, but a device for making people reconsider careless ones.
- Does it really always happen? (Reality Check): In 2021, a team of researchers associated with Harvard University in the United States analyzed conversations on the online community Reddit and reported that Nazi comparisons did not appear frequently enough to be statistically significant.
In this sense, Godwin’s Law is less an exact prediction than a mirror reflecting the habits of online conversation.
Lessons for Online Conversation
Godwin’s Law is not a spell for ending an argument, but a story about how we choose our words.
(1) Be Wary of Exaggerated Comparisons
When emotions run high, it is tempting to compare the other person to the worst thing imaginable, but such comparisons shut down conversation and make light of real historical tragedies.
(2) Put Evidence Before Comparisons
Before comparing someone to something, if you explain with concrete evidence what is similar and how, the same criticism becomes far more persuasive.
(3) Use It as a Starting Point for Conversation
Godwin hoped the law would be used to start conversations rather than to end them. When a comparison comes up, you can treat it as a chance to examine together whether the comparison is really valid.
In the end, what this law asks is the question, ‘Is that comparison really accurate?’ Simply getting into the habit of asking yourself this question first can greatly change the atmosphere of online conversation.
Godwin’s Law shows how easily arguments on the other side of the screen slide into extremes. Perhaps a one-sentence adage has survived for decades because we have seen similar scenes so often.
Thinking once more about the weight of a strong comparison before you make it: that is the first step toward healthy online discussion.
