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Originally Posted by magictoy
That was why I gave two examples. Did you have a response, or do you feel that mentioning "Godwin's Law" (which doesn't really apply here, anyway) suffices to end all discussion?
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If you don't think Godwin's Law doesn't apply to what you said, you need to reread what Godwin's Law means. You compared buring a flag to dressing like Hitler. "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." Did your comparison involve Hitler? Yes.
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Originally Posted by magictoy
Of course, I suppose it IS possible to ignore the most significant event of the 20th century, but I just feel a little funny about that.
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The idea behind the Godwin's law is that beacuse WWII and the Nazi final solution were so horrific that comparing them to anything in a discussion disrespects holocaust survirors.
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Originally Posted by magictoy
1. A bigot is defined as "One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ." When a flag is burned, especially by a US citizen, not only does it reveal a shocking ignorance of those who died protecting the flag, but it is hugely offensive to those who have protected this country, or lost someone who was defending this country. (Except for hypocritical publicity seekers like Cindy Sheehan.)
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Okay.
Cindy Sheehan's son died. Unless your son died you have no right to tell her how to react to that. Cindy, like Hitler, has nothing to do with this discussion.
The teacher was burning the flag to show kids what some people believe. He was not, himself, meaning to disrespect people. And BTW, not all veterans are against flag burning, so you shouldn't be pretending like you're representing them. Also, burning a flag might not have anything to do with the military. You see, our flag can represent anything about our country. Someone can burn a US flag because of our social security system, or they can burn it because Bush can't give public speaches. It's not all about the armed forces.
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Originally Posted by magictoy
2. These ever-present cries of "Godwin! Godwin!" are, in my opinion, a very childish and fallacious response. Do you and host REALLY think Hitler should never be used as a historical figure from whose life we can learn?
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Hitler has a lot to teach us, but making comparisons to Hitler is still a Godwin. You can't change that. Also, what the heck does a teacher burning the US flag have to do with Hitler?
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Originally Posted by magictoy
3. I am still struggling to determine when bigotry became the ony form of intolerance and/or offensive behavior. It's fashionable to make bigotry the worst crime imaginable, but many consider treason (as in "giving aid and comfort to the enemy")to be worse.
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Bigotry isn't the worst crime imaginable in my mind, ignorance in a more general sense is a lot worse. But again, this is a simple case of a teacher using a burning flag to teach about those who burn flags. That is social studies. It's really that simple.