Godwin’s Law

Is there an internet law about how some people are just too dumb to have a clue? 8

This entry was posted in Beyond Satire Godwin's Law on by

The Onion could probably do a good piece on some idiot calling for a repeal of Godwin’s Law and their made up fool wouldn’t sound any more clueless than Stewart Cowan when he demands the same thing. Now I know that I’ve slightly abused the definition of Godwin’s Law myself on occasion, but I at least understand it and its purpose. Godwin’s Law states- “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” The longer and more heated a debate becomes, the more likely someone is to lose perspective and start comparing their opponents to Hitler. There is a corollory to the law which suggests that, in a civilised debate, the person who has just proven themselves an idiot automatically loses, the thread is officially closed and everyone should move on. Cowan isn’t very good at civilised debate.

You know the type-

“I’m not allowed to inflict my poisonous and foul smelling addiction on other people in pubs any more! It’s just like the Nazis!”

“The speed limit around schools has dropped to twenty, so that I’m less likely to kill children! It’s just like the Nazis!”

“I have to put a little thought into which bin I use! That might make me stop and realise how much waste I’m generating! It’s just like the Nazis!”

“I’m not allowed to use my religion to justify breaking the law and discriminating against people! It’s just like the Nazis!”

“People are paying more attention to the carefully researched, proven facts than my poorly thought out propaganda! It’s just like the Nazis!”

Etc.

Cowan is more eager than most to brand anyone doing something he doesn’t agree with a fascist. Even when he’s tackling something I could agree is objectionable, he’s too eager to go all frothy at the mouth to ever elicit any empathy from me. Somehow the fact that the majority of people polled didn’t think it’s a good idea to let idiot Americans pay addicts to be neutered passed him by. He’d rather lament about how it’s evil that some people like to stay in touch with reality when he thinks they should be joining him in his fantasy world.

I’m sure Stewart Cowan’s anger keeps him warm at night, but he’s the blogger who cried wolf- repeatedly and loudly- and has proven he has nothing useful to add to any debate.

The debate is now officially closed 1

This entry was posted in abortion Carvath Godwin's Law Salford on by

Salford based political genius Richard Carvath is a gift that just keeps on giving. He’s supposedly on a self imposed blogging embargo until the end of October, but he keeps breaking it. Most recently he popped up to give us “a rare glimpse of the sort of efforts I do make with the media in my work, and also to show the sort of well-written, heavyweight letter which rarely sees the light of day in newsprint“.

The well written letter goes Godwin in the first sentence by comparing someone with a view different to Carvath’s to the Nazis (and slave traders). It ends with the heavyweight suggestion that human rights abuses in China somehow are the same thing as women in Salford choosing whether or not to have an abortion.

It’s almost too easy to pick on Carvath, but whilst he maintains his ill informed and often offensive opinions he’s going to keep providing material for my amusement.

Has Iain Dale gone Godwin?

This entry was posted in Godwin's Law Gordon Brown Iain Dale on by

There’s a fair amount of anger about this post on Iain Dale’s Diary, where he reprints a couple of political images by artist Louis Sidoli. One of the pictures in Dale’s post features Gordon Brown as Hitler with a description, from the artist, which is pure Godwin-

The first piece is called ‘Reign of Error’ . It is a play on words from the recent book which described Gordon Brown’s leadership at No10 as a ‘Reign Of Terror’. In this piece, he is ‘morphed’ into an image of Hitler! Of course it is provocative, but if you think about it, there are strong similarities: Both started out as chancellors, both bullied their way to the top and seized power without being democratically elected, both tried to rig the electoral process, both prone to flying into uncontrollable rages and both caused huge economic damage to our country etc…

Dale is only really reporting on the artist’s work, but he does throw in a justification by comparing it to anti-Thatcher works which appeared during her time. Still, I do think the reaction’s a bit over the top. Sidoli’s art, in these pictures at least, is weak and naive. He suggests that he wants to create something as iconic as Shepard Fairey’s Hope image of Obama, but he’s a long, long way away from that.

I’m not going to jump on the anti-Dale bandwagon on this one, but I do wonder what his reaction would have been to an equaly offensive image of David Cameron.

I, for one, welcome America’s new Marxist-Nazi-Muslim-Liberal Hive overlord 3

This entry was posted in Barack Obama football Godwin's Law idiots US Election USA on by

Today Barack Obama becomes US President. Unfortunately, he’s not the Messiah, just a politician with far better ideas than the guy he’s replacing. Even given two terms he probably can’t completely clean up the mess left by Bush and friends, but at least he won’t try to make it even worse.

A post on Joan Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge pointed out that today would be a great time to take another look at the rightwing sites I followed during the election and see what sort of idiocy their self pity generated. There’s the post linked in the article, which suggests that any “liberal” success is down to some sort of Hive mind. Because like minded people working together for a common goal is a Socialist invention somehow. The same guy Godwin’d (again, I’m sure he did it multiple times during the election) a few days ago, because trying to sort out the banks is the first step on the road to the concentration camps.

Stop the ACLU jumps on the too-tired-to-do-any-original-thinking bandwagon with a similar post and tries to stop global warming by quoting a guy who doesn’t seem to know what he’s rebelling against.

Michelle Malkin has an open thread for people who want to moan about living in a democracy.

Little Green Footballs tries to place the blame anywhere other than the Worst President Ever and the stupidly dangerous pair that wanted to carry on his good work.

You know, I sort of miss these idiots, but I don’t know if I have enough time to follow all of them. Maybe just one RSS feed, to sample the madness? They are, after all, embodiments of the sort of beliefs I’m giving to the bad guys in Sounds of Soldiers.

Update Take nine and a half minutes to learn why these people are so wrong and deluded-

Tweets today

This entry was posted in Godwin's Law Spinneyhead Twitter on by

00:28 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/5obw5m #

00:28 Blog: NaNoWriMo first draft- The Battle of Longsight Market tinyurl.com/5jv2ph #

00:38 Radio 4 US election coverage on sleep. My dreams will be filled with electoral colleges. #

07:02 Just woke to news that Obama has been elected. Excellent. #

09:26 Blog: Obama Wins! tinyurl.com/67ugjl #

11:27 Blog: We have fractal cauliflower tinyurl.com/5wkspl #

11:27 Blog: Oooh look, Godwin! tinyurl.com/58hpa2 #

12:01 Scale: If you have 3,200 pounds to spare tinyurl.com/5pbnr8 #

17:30 Blog: This is why Barack Obama got elected tinyurl.com/5jzz52 #

17:35 Hey look at me I’m covered in punk. Covered in candy. Covered in candy. #

18:27 Eating in bar 38. Got one spare ticket. #

19:46 Time for a little Bondage. #

follow me on Twitter

Brought to you with LoudTwitter

Oooh look, Godwin!

This entry was posted in Godwin's Law US Election on by

Paraphrased, but only very slightly, for some right wing idiots blog-

“You know who else promised change? Hitler, that’s who. Congratulations America, you just elected Hitler. And Fidel Castro. Yes, Fidel Castro promised change too. Congratulations America, you just elected Hitler AND Fidel Castro all rolled into one.”

Man shot for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt

This entry was posted in Barack Obama Crime Godwin's Law london US Election on by

The scary thing is, this happened in London. A man wearing a Barack Obama t-shirt was harassed whilst shopping by a man who later came back with an airgun and shot him. The attacker was obviously an unhinged racist looking for a reason to attack someone, but the Obama-hate is the sort of thing I expect to see more of from the right wing nuts in the US. All the morons currently going all Godwin and equating him to Hitler will go into full on armed uprising fantasies if (when? please make it when) he wins the election.