Reddit has just about proven Godwin's Law
If you've ever had an extended conversation on the Internet, there's a very good chance that you or your ideas have been compared to Adolph Hitler or Nazis.
The propensity for Internet dialogue to eventually feature Nazis is the subject of a popular notion known as Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
Thanks to Reddit and an enterprising writer, we have the best evidence yet of the law's veracity.
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The writer behind CuriousGnu.com analyzed some publicly available Reddit data and came to a stunning conclusion. Any thread with more than 1,000 comments had a more than 70% chance of having a Nazi or Hitler mention.
The writer acknowledged that his analysis does not take into account the context in which the references are made. He found that threads in the subreddits of history and Europe had a much higher likelihood of including Hitler or Nazi references, which is somewhat understandable considering the relevance of those topics.
Also well above average was /r/TheDonald, the subreddit dedicated to Donald Trump's presidential run that has become a hotbed of Reddit craziness.
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Topics Reddit
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
