You derailed fairly effectively with this thread's OP?

edit;Is this thread going to get locked, too?

I think people have become complacent because this will always be a hot topic that seemingly never will come to an agreement.

No, I just want the author to be credited.  I am not the author of the thread.  I do, however, oppose this and think that "philosophers" like this should be protested.

How did I derail anything?

* Kapkao mumbles something about "...like pulling teeth, some days..."

The original thread wasn't posted to compare philosophers to hate groups. Methinks you and I both took 142857's OP a lil too literally. Because you probably did. Also... the "I'm always right about everything" attitude (even though it is a common behavioral trait in neurodiversity) doesn't win many friends IRL or on the net. It tends to rub people the wrong way. Just a thought.

I don't think "correct attribution" is much of a concern when splitting threads.

When someone or something isn't being compared to a nazi?
Like sexual orientation labels amongst "NT" individuals, social and internet slang doesn't work all that effectively with neurodiversity, if one were to literally interpret things by the author's intent. Godwin's Law was conceived (initially as a joke) to demonstrate that comparing people or things to nazis is rather inevitable on the internet, the longer a "conversation" ensues.

Few people alive today, if any, make Nazi comparisons relevant IMNSHO.

edit; spelling correction

Sorry about that. It says you're the author of this thread because your post is the first one I put here. I thought it made sense to start the split with that one, since the derailment happened as a result of my response to it. No offense intended.

Just to say what my opinion is on this, comparisons to hate groups such as Nazis or the KKK can be done appropriately, but it has to be done carefully to avoid weakening your argument. Strong, hard evidence must be given to demonstrate the connection. The easiest way to do this is to present the evidence before making the comparison. That prevents people from simply walking away before they hear or read the evidence.

And, yes, Godwin's Law simply states the likelihood of comparisons to Nazis. It doesn't really state anything about the appropriateness of such a comparison. Others have added that since then. I simply couldn't think of a better way to phrase the question.

Well... a comparison of Robert Mugabe, that egyptian dictator and that one libyan guy to nazis might be apt.

If you can give hard evidence to the comparison, maybe.

The real truth of it is that making comparisons to Nazis without someone calling Godwin is very tricky. It usually can't be done as a blanket statement on a person or political party or whatever. Most of the time, it has to apply to only a specific policy. It also shouldn't be over-used. Otherwise, even a valid comparison becomes as meaningless as any other time the comparison is made.

At least, that's my observation.

People *should* remember the Holocaust when evil ideas appear.  

It is not only a good idea.  It is Godwin's Law!

Those three african autocrats ruled with totalitarian authority via a betrayed revolution, and have likely caused the torture/murder of millions NOT unlike Saddam, another brutal Autocrat or "Uncle Joe(sef Stalin)" or Mao Zedong (also brutal autocrats.)

Here we are. Hopefully I've got all the posts that belong here moved here, and with a brand new title!

LOl..

well done - I popped in and popped out (thinking Uh oh!)- and it has turned out okay

maybe I'll contribute

Yeah, I take the blame for any confusion. Probably should have renamed the first split thread.

I don't think it's enough just to be a dictator.  There has to be an explicit racial or eugenics component or else it's just fascism or authoritarianism.  Religious tyranny should also be separate.

One common fallacy is to assume that just because a world leader is a dictator, that means they must be like Hitler. I'm certainly not going to take the side that a dictator is not a bad person. Only that different dictators do things differently. There are certain methods that all the successful ones tend to use, but they don't all use Hitler as the model for what they do.

In short, I think it's usually best to describe each dictator's own atrocities, and let them tell their own story.