Dictionary

Godwin's law en · PROPN

Etymology

Named after American attorney and author Mike Godwin (1956–).

Meanings

1. (Internet, humorous, usually) An adage that asserts that any Usenet discussion will eventually mention the Nazis or Adolf Hitler.
   • His article urges people not to be “afraid” of being charged with confirming Godwin's law. But who would be afraid of that charge when you believe that the Nazi analogy is apt? 2018, Scott F. Aikin, Robert B. Talisse, Why We Argue, Routledge, →ISBN:
   • The power to be a being of pure thought, the unlimited, unconstrained world of imagination, and we build a world of animated gifs, stupid sight gags, lame van-art avatars, stupid “playful” environments, and brain-dead flame wars augmented by animated emoticons that allowed participants to express their hackneyed ad hominems, concern-trollery, and Godwin's law violations through the media of cartoon animals and oversized genitals. 2012, Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, The Rapture of the Nerds, Tor Books, →ISBN, page 296:
2. (Internet, humorous, usually) An adage that asserts that the first person in an argument (usually in an online comment thread or forum) to mention the Nazis or Adolf Hitler has lost.

Forms

Relateds

I did Nazi that coming · reductio ad Hitlerum