I am so guilty of invoking Godwin’s Law. I just did it in yesterday’s post. A faithful and very reliable reader (MB) commented “Godwin’s Law” and those two words said it all.
Godwin’s Law States:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1, 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 Adolf Hitler or his deeds.
Reductio ad Hitlerum:
Reductio ad Hitlerum (pseudo-Latin for “reduction to Hitler”; sometimes argumentum ad Hitlerum, “argument to Hitler”, ad Nazium, “to Nazism”), or playing the Nazi card, is an attempt to invalidate someone else’s position on the basis that the same view was held by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party, for example: “Hitler was against tobacco smoking, X is against tobacco smoking, therefore X is a Nazi”.
Who knows stuff like this? I guess MB does!
Lesson to me: I need to stop being guilty of reductio ad Hitlerum.