Re: Nazis/Privacy/Cypherpunks

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>]

This seems as good a time as any to remind folks of Godwin's Law, which
represents one of my earliest net.meme.hacks:

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Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies: As an online discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
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--Mike


P.S. You may also be interested in the corollaries, which shed some useful
light on the dynamics of online discussions:

Gordon's Restatement of Newman's Corollary to Godwin's Law:
   Libertarianism (pro, con, and internal faction fights) is *the*
primordial netnews discussion topic.  Anytime the debate shifts
somewhere else, it must eventually return to this fuel source.

Morgan's Corollary to Godwin's Law: 
	As soon as such a comparison occurs, someone will start a
	Nazi-discussion spinoff thread on alt.censorship.

Sircar's Corollary:  If the USENET discussion touches on homosexuality
or Heinlein, Nazis or Hitler are mentioned within three days.