Godwin's Law

A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfieted the argument.

Made obsolete by the Neocons.

Usenet 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. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.

"As an internet discussion about Bill O'Reilly grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Falafel or Loofa approaches one."

"Anyone who uses 'woke' as a pejorative will turn out to be a fuckhead."

The law was coined in a 2022 tweet by Mike Godwin.

Many people know of Godwin's Primary Law; as an arguement becomes more heated, the likely-hood of references to Nazi's and/or Hitler increases. His secondary law is that; as the likely-hood of Nazi's and/or Hitler being mentioned in a thread, in direct reference to his Primary law, increases, so to must the chances of his own law being referred to. This will usually have little effect on the actual thread and will merely result in minor lulz.

Godwin's fourth law is a term created by Godwin fans, not mr. Godwin himself. The term means that the longer you talk with a conservative, the more likely he is to bring cops and soldiers into the discussion, and compare them with the currently debated subject, even if the comparison seems outright impossible or not making any sense at all.