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Godwin's law (or Godwin's rule of Nazi analogies) is an Internet adage asserting that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism. Promulgated by American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990,〔 Godwin's Law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. It is now applied to any threaded online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and blog comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric. In 2012, "Godwin's Law" became an entry in the third edition of the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. == Corollaries and usage == There are many corollaries to Godwin's law, some considered more canonical (by being adopted by Godwin himself)〔 than others.〔 For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress.〔("Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe" ). ''The Daily Telegraph'' (London), October 23, 2009.〕 This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's law. Godwin's law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one's opponent) with Nazis – often referred to as "playing the Hitler card". The law and its corollaries would not apply to discussions covering known mainstays of Nazi Germany such as genocide, eugenics, or racial superiority, nor, more debatably, to a discussion of other totalitarian regimes or ideologies, if that was the explicit topic of conversation, because a Nazi comparison in those circumstances may be appropriate, in effect committing the fallacist's fallacy, or inferring that an argument containing a fallacy must necessarily come to incorrect conclusions. Whether it applies to humorous use or references to oneself is open to interpretation, because this would not be a fallacious attack against a debate opponent. Although falling foul of Godwin's law tends to cause the individual making the comparison to lose his argument or credibility, Godwin's law itself can be abused as a distraction, diversion or even as censorship, fallaciously miscasting an opponent's argument as hyperbole when the comparisons made by the argument are actually appropriate.〔David Weigel, ("Hands Off Hitler! It's time to repeal Godwin's Law" ) ''Reason'' magazine, July 14, 2005〕 Similar criticisms of the "law" (or "at least the distorted version which purports to prohibit all comparisons to German crimes") have been made by Glenn Greenwald.〔Greenwald, Glenn (July 1, 2010) (The odiousness of the distorted Godwin's Law ), Salon.com〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Godwin's Law」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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