On Godwin's Law

On a post by the Guardian on Tweeter, I learned about Godwin's law and how bringing up Nazism as an argument point is indicative that the discussion has degraded to the point where no one has anything logical to add. Mr. Godwin himself says that he created the meme as a means of getting people to think more about the holocaust.

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Why humans are programmed to argue in comment threads

I disagree with Mr. Godwin on treating Nazism and the holocaust as synonyms. No, I'm not a denier. However, when I have used Nazism in past arguments online, it has always been as a synonym for  nationalism-on-steroids. I was referring to the despotic, the ipse dixit of authority, the fervor that blinded Christian people into toeing the government line. 

The holocaust was enabled by a despotic government but it was not a sine qua non of Nazism.

To prevent future holocausts, we need to stop despotism is all its guises. If it means calling someone a Nazi or a Fascist because they are control freaks, then so be it--we have few nouns that evoke with such clarity everything that's wrong with a given government's policies on human rights. If, for some, the images that come to mind are only those of the holocaust then that person should ask if there has been any killings; if none, then look for that which is despotic, dictatorial, or totalitarian when someone uses the term Nazi.

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