Hi folks,

Just a recent thought:
I'm thinking that Godwin's Law might not apply to Summitpost forum threads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
Over the years I can't recall threads (as heated as they may become) devolving to the level that proves Godwin's Law.
Or have I missed something here? Perhaps those threads are in the Off-Route section (don't know as I never spend time there)? In any case, it seems a testimony to the good work of the moderators (and the civility of the forum participants ).

Your thoughts?

Jesus Malverde wrote:Your thoughts?

Ok. I'll admit. You have me completely lost here.
What's the relevancy of your post?

I don't find this 'Godwin's Law' even remotely interesting.

I fully agree with the OP. In common society Godwin's law I've noticed without even knowing it (I found out about the law just now) is true. He picked this because of all the groups or specific individuals mentioned, the Nazi's/Hilter gets the most mentioning. Very rarely will you hear in a non historical conversation names like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Stalin (who is worse in my book).

Godwin sums up my thoughts pretty well by saying: "I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust". This is why I stopped using the term grammar Nazi.

The OP of this thread is simply complimenting SummitPost for not using the principals of Godwin's law.

This rule is certainly true of any discussion that Ejnar is involved in.

By the way, the OP shouldn't claim such innocence; I've seen his face in Off Route.

Are you really comparing Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Stalin to Hitler?

How was Stalin worse than Hitler? I think Pol Pot is in the same arena, but don't see how the others come close. Being an aggressive dictator is one thing, orchestrating genocide against millions quite another.

mrchad9 wrote:Are you really comparing Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Stalin to Hitler?

I was trying to create a contrast. The good and the bad, but well known. Some very note worthy people in history are not mentioned nearly as much even if they had way more impact on a society or perhaps the world.

mrchad9 wrote:Being an aggressive dictator is one thing, orchestrating genocide against millions quite another.

Your watering him down big time. Stalin didn't have genocide in his country too? Here's a fun read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_St ... of_victims

We have 3 million officially recorded victims. But we know the numbers were higher than that. Many records were not made or were censored. And I'm sure he had an effect on the famines that killed more than 5 and 10 million people. Here's another article on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Genocide

According to Viktor Yanukovych (president of the Ukraine): "It was the result of Stalin's totalitarian regime."

And if that's not enough, the Polish genocide, the many human rights abuses, and the many deportations. But yeah, he was an "ally" during WWII so most people will tread over those details. I certainly won't.

Kiefer Thomas wrote:

Jesus Malverde wrote:Your thoughts?

Ok. I'll admit. You have me completely lost here.
What's the relevancy of your post?

I don't find this 'Godwin's Law' even remotely interesting.

Mount Godwin-Austen is the former name of K2. "The Mountain" starred Kevin Bacon; but Ironically, Hitler was actually a vegetarian, who ate ham just to celebrate victory over Poland.

Josh Lewis wrote:

mrchad9 wrote:Being an aggressive dictator is one thing, orchestrating genocide against millions quite another.

Your watering him down big time. Stalin didn't have genocide in his country too? Here's a fun read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_St ... of_victims

We have 3 million officially recorded victims. But we know the numbers were higher than that. Many records were not made or were censored. And I'm sure he had an effect on the famines that killed more than 5 and 10 million people. Here's another article on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Genocide

According to Viktor Yanukovych (president of the Ukraine): "It was the result of Stalin's totalitarian regime."

And if that's not enough, the Polish genocide, the many human rights abuses, and the many deportations. But yeah, he was an "ally" during WWII so most people will tread over those details. I certainly won't.

While the numbers are comparable to Hitler and Pol Pot, it appears that unlike them the motivation for many of the deaths under Stalin were purely for political power or as acts of war on other countries. Hitler killed 6 million people for no other reason than their race, and Pol Pot did similarly to an astounding 2/7ths of his own country simply in the name of social reform.

mrchad9 wrote:it appears that unlike them the motivation for many of the deaths under Stalin were purely for political power

Right, but I don't see how his actions were any less corrupt. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to water down Hitler either with how bad he was. One thing is certain, I would have been targeted under Stalin's rule.

Pol Pot's too. He'd have gotten both of us.

Guess it'd be a moot point to disagree with and complain about Obama, but that's why we got free speech .....

Save your politics for off route. Can't you see our conversation is 100% relevant to mountain climbing.

To me, the threads generally start off "on route", then about the 17th or so posting, it goes "off route". It would be barely interesting to determine the posting's ordinal position when it went off route, for a number of threads, then average them.

This is analogous to a dynamic system maintaining a sense of order, then whammo, chaos. Think of a column of smoke from your cigarette, all nice and orderly for the first few cm, then unruly and chaotic thereafter.

Didn't your mother tell you smoking is dangerous and can kill you?

She actually told me it would make me look cool and that the other kids would like me better.