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`Meme-Nazis'

As Nazi analogies proliferate on the Internet, a cyber-
crusader launches a counteroffensive.

ADAM KATZ STONE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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I

n a recent Internet discussion,
a disgruntled Canadian argued
that the leaders of the French-
speaking population in Quebec
are "nothing but a bunch of Nazis
in sheep's clothing."
Someone who supports the use
of animals in medical testing as-
serted elsewhere that "the only
modern regime to enact the type
of legislation demanded by the
animal rights movement was
Nazi Germany."
Even a woodworker, who no
longer can buy a particular brand
of 10-inch tilt-top table saw, laid
the blame squarely on the "safe-
ty Nazis."

Adam Katz-Stone is a freelance

writer based in Annapolis, Md.

Anyone who has spent time
surfing discussion groups on the
Internet will have noticed how of-
ten people compare one another
to Nazis: Second Amendment ad-
vocates routinely liken support-
ers of gun control to Hitler.
"Pro-lifers" say doctors who per-
form abortions are engaging in
genocide. And folks who take is-
sue with America's immigration
policy are quickly reminded that
the Germans, too, opposed foreign
workers.
The idea that everyone you dis-
agree with is a Nazi has become
a "meme," according to Mike God-
win, counsel for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, a San Fran-
cisco-based civil liberties organi-
zation that follows on-line culture.

memetic, is "an
idea that func-
tions in a mind
the same way a
virus functions in
the body. And an
infectious idea —
call it a 'viral
meme' — may
leap from mind to
mind, much as
viruses leap from
body to body."
Take black
holes, for in-
stance. The idea
of a cosmic
bottomless pit
has become "a
handy source of
metaphors for
everything, from
illiteracy to the
deficit," says Mr.
Godwin. Just as
these compar-
.M1, 7 -111":711',I ;31L
isons tend to ob-
In a recent paper, posted at the scure the true nature of a black
Electronic Frontier Foundation's hole, he argues that the overused
Web site (http://www.eff.org ), Mr. Nazi "meme" belittles the Holo-
Godwin explains that a meme, or caust, and demeans the victims

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of Hitler's persecutions.
Mr. Godwin describes an ex-
periment he has conducted to try
to stem the indiscriminate on-
line use of Nazi analogies. In
1990 he began circulating "God-
win's Law of Nazi Analogies":
that as an on-line discussion
grows longer, the probability of
a comparison involving Nazis or
Hitler approaches 100 percent.
Each time he has caught
someone in cyberspace compar-
ing someone else to Hitler, Mr.
Godwin has posted "Godwin's
Law" as part of the discussion, in
order to advise people that the
analogy is inept.
To his surprise, people have
taken notice of his postings, and
a number of corollary "laws" have
begun to circulate.
Today Mr. Godwin considers
his experiment a success. Over
time, he says, the groups in
which he seeded his original
"law" have begun to show a low-
er incidence of Nazi comparisons.
This raises some interesting

`MEME-NAZIS' page 20

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