shanen's Journal: Time to repeal Godwin's Law?

Is it time to repeal Godwin's Law?

In his younger days as a usenet flamer, Mike wanted to discourage excessive and hyperbolic appeals to the Nazis. Therefore he proposed what has become the eponymous law, but there are times when Nazi comparisons are in order and should NOT terminate the discussion or concede any point. (And usenet is dead, anyway.)

Let me be clear that I do NOT think Trump should be compared to Hitler, though I increasingly wonder if Uncle Joe Stalin might be a fair basis for comparison with the thin-skinned Donald. However I absolutely think that some of Trump's supporters should be compared to Nazi supporters, especially his fanatical Trumpeters with the Brown Shirts, focusing on the period before the Nazis first gained substantial political power.

Unfortunately, the Trumpeters are much better armed than the Brown Shirts. Not in terms of arm muscles. I'm pretty sure the Germans of that time ate little junk food and were probably generally healthier than Americans these days. Nor am I talking about guns. To the contrary, I'm confident that Americans have more guns.

I think the really dangerous weapon the Trumpeters have is the Internet. Remember the pen is mightier than the sword, and Trump and his minions are becoming (or may already be) great experts in destroying their opponents using the Internet. Hillary already seems like a soft target.

The Trump supporters also use the Internet as a communication channel, but their most dangerous use of today's Internet is to bolster their own ignorance by stuffing their own ears and eyes with infinite amounts of bad data. Like the information bubble of the fake conservatives, but much worse and they are deliberately doing it to themselves. The propaganda techniques of Trump and his supporters are worth comparing with the Nazi's techniques.

Isn't it time to repeal Godwin's Law? Could it be done, even by Mike?

In the most technical sense

[damn_registrars]

Godwin's law does not indicate that the person who invokes a reference to Nazis is surrendering the argument. Rather his law simply states that given enough time all arguments will go to a point where Nazis come up.

According to Mike, it was all a joke

[shanen]

You should take it up with Godwin, but I think I'm done arguing with him about what he really means. Seriously, I knew him fairly well in those days, and I got quite tired of arguing with him. Pretty sure I knew him some years before he entered law school, but I had left Austin before 1990, which Wikipedia gives as the date of the law.

The bit about losing the discussion is a "tradition", but as I noted, usenet is dead. Not perfectly, but close enough, and I think the Google killed it.

Pretty sure that Mike w