How To Debate An Objectivist Using Godwin's Law

One of the things that will happen when debating a non-utilitarian is that they will eventually compare you to the Nazis and the Soviets. This is simply because we are like those two groups. Any rational person would realize that fact after just a tiny bit of researching utilitarianism. But there is a general rule of etiquette concerning internet threads, and one of the rules is Godwin's Law, which states

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

The most important part is that anyone that likens someone else to Nazism automatically loses the argument, and that it basically guarantees that utilitarians will win arguments against objectivists if they hold on long enough. It works something like this.


Hitler: "Aryans are the master race. We should exterminate the Jews."



Me: "F*** you, you Nazi!"



Hitler: "Godwin's Law."



Me: "God damn it. OK you win, Hitler."


Nazis and utilitarians believe in many of the same things and differ only in details. Noting similarities between the two belief systems is accurate. But the fact that such an accusation against utilitarians has merit does not justify its use, because we live in a society where it is taboo to call socialism and welfare statism what they really are- philosophies of death.