Godwin's Second Law

"Anyone who uses 'woke' as a pejorative will turn out to be a fuckhead."

The law was coined in a 2022 tweet by Mike Godwin.

Person 1: Did they seriously have to make the main character gay? This is forced diversity. I'm tired of all the rampant wokeness in modern media.
Person 2: Godwin's Second Law. You lose.

by PersonWhoExists50306 November 27, 2022

Godwin's Law

A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfieted the argument.

"Dude, shut up. Nobody cares what you think."

"Oh, so now you're trying to censor me? Go to hell, you damn Nazi!"

by You Can't Kill the Metal June 12, 2005

Godwin's number

n. The average number of replies in a thread before a Nazi reference is made. Generally, Godwin's number is regarded to be twenty, based on the equation: G=(d(Q1)+d(Q2)+...+d(Q)n)/100*n^(-n)
where Qn is the intelligence of user n, n is the total number of forum users, and d is a damping function that prevents the intelligence (or lack there of) of one user to influence the others too much.

As he typed his polemic on the forum, John brought the discussion one step closer to Godwin's number.

To prevent discussions from getting out of hand, OmniForums will now calculate Godwin's number based on the first two threads.

by A_1_B_2_C_3_________________ September 30, 2006

Godwin's Exception

When a forum member intentionally references Nazis or Hitler to close a thread, the forum member concedes any right to continue the thread, but the thread is not considered closed.

User1: Absolutely ridiculous. You know who else had a special police force that jailed their citizens for disagreeing with them? That's right. The Nazi party.
User2: I'm calling Godwin's Exception. The Godwin's Corollary only functions when you mean it. You're clearly trying to short circuit the conversation.

by Chuck80 June 18, 2012

Godwin's law

Usenet There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

by Anonymous September 9, 2003

Godwin's Wall

The point in a conversation at which you realize that the person you're talking to is an intractable Nazi (or close enough). Usually encountered during "alternative fact"-laden discussions with supporters of reactionary movements, e.g., Donald J. Trump.

When Mr. Bannon started frothing at the mouth and calling me a "Cultural Marxist", we sorta hit Godwin's Wall, so I sent Mexico the bill and left.

by sebawlm February 24, 2017

Godwin's Second Law

Many people know of Godwin's Primary Law; as an arguement becomes more heated, the likely-hood of references to Nazi's and/or Hitler increases. His secondary law is that; as the likely-hood of Nazi's and/or Hitler being mentioned in a thread, in direct reference to his Primary law, increases, so to must the chances of his own law being referred to. This will usually have little effect on the actual thread and will merely result in minor lulz.

Newfag: goddamn Nazi everyone knows Fullmetalalchemist is the most awesome anime EVAR!"111!!!!
4channer1: Lol Godwin's law, you lose.
4channer2: lol Godwin's Second law.
4channer1: LOL
Newfag: Wut?

by Roseveare June 17, 2009