William Wallet wrote:I think it's called Godwin's Law?
I don't know what it's called, I just know it's an age old rule often cited (by me at least) in online discussions/debates. to me, bringing out the Nazi reference to make one's point is the equivalent of saying "I can't really argue with you with logic and reason so I am going to bring out the largest most over the top emotionally charged issue i can think of to deflect your argument".
William Wallet wrote:I mean, unless it's a discussion about murderous regimes, there are far more fitting things to bring up than WW2. Ha-ha
It's definitely the most commonly referenced, but it's actually not even the most fitting example of a murderous regime - it's probably just the most familiar and emotionally resonant for most Northern European countries and people of NE descent, If you are talking about most atrocious murderous regimes, the old Soviet Union killed a lot more of it's population (by a factor of at least 4x) than the Nazi's did in their day. Or if you want to go by highest rate of killing, in it's 'hey day' Cambodia under the leadership of Pol Pot was killing something like 8% of it's population every year. China (under different leaders) also ranks pretty high in the 'murderous regime' top 10 list, if you combined China's different periods of murdering citizens it would easily top the Nazis, and be second only to the USSR.