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Also known as: Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies
Mike Godwin's 1990 observation that as a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis approaches one. Framed as a description of thread behavior, it hardened by convention into a rule that whoever made the comparison first had lost the argument. Godwin has repeatedly noted the original was meant to discourage careless analogies, not to bar historical comparison.
Browse all terms in Culture & History, or see the full Usenet glossary.