The contemporary version of Godwin’s Law states that as an argument on the Internet grows longer, the odds that someone compares someone else to Hitler or the Nazis approaches one. The corollary is that whoever mentions Hitler first usually loses. Godwin’s Law and Reductio ad Hitlerum are sly ways that the Internet and its denizens shame/lampoon needless hyperbole and its overheated practitioners.
Glenn Beck either doesn’t get it or doesn’t care. The man does not understand shame, good taste, or, frankly, how journalism works. Wednesday night, he accompanied his rantings about how America is descending into fascism under President Obama (which sound nutty and militia-ish, but were aired on Fox News) with over a minute of full screen images of Nazi foot soldiers marching in lockstep. It is completely over the top and completely unacceptable. Watch below (via Think Progress):
I say we rename it Beck’s Law. Godwin’s Law has been blown to pieces.
