Dina Nguyen Commits Godwin's Law!
Years ago, through the wonders of the Rotten.com Library, I learned Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies. Per Rotten.com:
Conversely, you can attack an opponent simply by declaring his position to be consistent with Hitler's. This tactic has long been a fixture of the Usenet newsgroups, which eventually prompted Godwin to formulate his famous Law of Nazi Analogies:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Whenever one of our commentators trots out the Hitler card, I always cite the above passage, not to sound clever but to shamelessly promote the Rotten.com Library, one of the greatest archives of information since the Library of Alexandria (now that's trying to be clever!). I bring all of this up not just to plug the Rotten.com library but so that readers can keep it in mind when considering the overblown analogies of Garden Grove councilwoman and Orange County First Supervisorial District candidate Dina Nguyen.
The Orange County Register is doing an admirable job in cornering Little Saigon's politicos to discuss the protesters targeting Viet Weekly, Nguoi Viet, and seemingly anything or anyone that doesn't sufficiently kowtow to their particular brand of anti-communism. Asked why some refugees turn into McCarthyites upon seeing the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Dina told Reg reporter Martin Wisckol, "It’s sort of like a Jewish community seeing a Nazi flag."
Cue Godwin's Law!
Sorry, Dina. As painful as the Vietnam War is for hundreds of thousands of Orange County residents, it never got into Hitler territory. I understand why some Vietnamese refugees have such visceral reactions to the current Vietnam banner, but to compare a civil war to the atrocity of the Third Reich is a political ploy as cheap as taking helicopter rides down to the United States-Mexico border and thereafter declaring yourself tough on illegal immigration.
Comments (6)
Write Comment
Email to Friend
