I hope I may be excused for being flattered at the June 16 installment of “The Daily Show,” which had a segment on overreaching Hitler comparisons. No reference to Godwin’s Law as such, but Stewart lines like the following still made me feel special:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to call it — Tuesday afternoon, 2:43 PM, the debate over Guantanamo has its first official Hitler reference….”

“You know, I don’t think something can even be considered an issue or debate in this country unless there has been … a Hitler reference.”

The website tagline for the video makes the point as well: “Someone disagrees with you? Compare ‘em to a Nazi. Works like a charm. A Hitler charm.”

There’s also a lovely recent roundup of Hitler comparisons, with links, at the Beautiful Atrocities website, here.

I probably should have crafted Godwin’s Law early on so as to cover more than online discussions — but I don’t think it quite occurred to me back in the late ’80s and early ’90s that public debate in all media was going to descend to the lowest common denominator. I may have been hoping the online world would turn out to be a special case.

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