Friday, October 15, 2004
The bad news for John Kerry, is that his candidacy is over, and has been for some time. This is not my partisan belief, since my preferred candidate will never win, but it is a provable fact.
For many months a decent sized and very vocal faction of the liberal democratic party has been comparing Bush to Hitler. We've seen everything from the Moveon.org ads explicitly making this point, to Michael Moore's bloviations (does that word reveal bias on my part?), to the guy outside my building selling "Bushitler" signs and T-shirts.
Enter Godwin's law, which states that "as an [online] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison to Nazis and Hitler approaches one." In online forums it is almost universally recognized when the comparison is made, the argument is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost the argument. This law makes sense, because it is clear that by the time someone uses a Nazi comparison as a debating tactic or argument, they have already run out of legitimate points and have thus lost. And although the law in it's strict form applies to online (specifically USENET) discussions, many feel that it applies equally well to a heated argument in any medium (and of course many political arguments happen online).
So there you have it. John Kerry is done. Sorry to ruin the election night suspense.
* and don't be a jerk and point out Freiler's Maxim, or that the person who points out that Godwin's Law applies loses the battle, because I am not a participant so this does not apply.
For many months a decent sized and very vocal faction of the liberal democratic party has been comparing Bush to Hitler. We've seen everything from the Moveon.org ads explicitly making this point, to Michael Moore's bloviations (does that word reveal bias on my part?), to the guy outside my building selling "Bushitler" signs and T-shirts.
Enter Godwin's law, which states that "as an [online] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison to Nazis and Hitler approaches one." In online forums it is almost universally recognized when the comparison is made, the argument is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost the argument. This law makes sense, because it is clear that by the time someone uses a Nazi comparison as a debating tactic or argument, they have already run out of legitimate points and have thus lost. And although the law in it's strict form applies to online (specifically USENET) discussions, many feel that it applies equally well to a heated argument in any medium (and of course many political arguments happen online).
So there you have it. John Kerry is done. Sorry to ruin the election night suspense.
* and don't be a jerk and point out Freiler's Maxim, or that the person who points out that Godwin's Law applies loses the battle, because I am not a participant so this does not apply.
