Racism is the New Hitler

Tim Slagle at Big Government says that once you call someone racist you've pretty much lost the argument:

We owe a great favor to Mike Godwin. Those of us who have spent any amount of time arguing nonsense on the Internet are familiar with Godwins Law. Briefly, Godwins Law states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches … given enough time, all discussions —regardless of topic or scope —inevitably wind up being about Hitler and the Nazis.”

The most wonderful aspect of Godwin is that “there is a tradition in many newsgroups, and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically ‘lost’ whatever debate was in progress.”

Now there are exceptions to Godwin, for instance when discussing Jesse James affair with Bombshell McGee, it would be quite difficult to not bring up Nazi references. As a student of Hayek, a personal beef I have, is that sometimes a political argument requires a comparison.

Friedrich A. Hayek believed, the infringements on Liberty caused by programs like National Health Care, or any other central planning, will inevitably lead to a totalitarian government that is indistinguishable from National Socialism, save for the logo on the armbands. However being held to Godwin is a rigorous discipline that forces me to plum the depths of my intellect, for an alternate metaphor when discussing issues with liberals.

I believe that Godwin also applied during the years of the Bush Administration. Their argument was lost when Code Pink and MoveOn started with the BusHitler remarks, and I think images of the current President sporting a Charlie Chaplin moustache should probably be discouraged as well.

But I think we should add another corollary to Godwins Law. I think that if you call your opponent a Racist, you have also lost the argument.

Read the rest of it here.

The steam has definitely been taken out of the word "racist". As a conservative blogger I've been called that more times than I can remember and it carries no sting. It used to be a dagger in the heart of anyone falsely accused, but not anymore. It's just become a normal part of opposing the Obama agenda.

If you're against Obamacare, you're racist.
If you're against auto company bailouts, you're racist
If you're against bank bailouts,  you're racist.
If you're against Affirmative Action programs that discriminate against white people, you're racist.
If you're against cap-and-trade, you're racist.
If you're against card check for unions, you're racist.
If you're against stimulus spending that doesn't create jobs, you're racist.
If you're against increasing the deficit to extend unemployment benefits beyond the current 99 weeks, you're racist.
If you're against Obama's socialist agenda, you're racist.

You can see how it goes.  Since we all can't be racists the charge simply loses it's authenticity.

Frankly, that's a good thing.