Today i was reading all the negative one star reviews on Amazon. It’s an amusing pastime and it’s odd to realise there are people out there who will give a book one star purely because everyone else likes it. These people are usually misinformed and many seem to apply to Godwin’s Law. For those of you unfamiliar with Godwin’s Law it is an observation made by Mike Godwin asserting that the longer an online internet discussion goes on the likelihood of a comparison or reference increases. It matters not if the referencing is appropriate just that it is there and so when the reference is invalid it should not be used so the valid comparisons have the weight they should.
This got me thinking and checking all the Hitler/Nazi comparisons that are made on Amazon and random blogs. There are so many out there it borders on the ridiculous, also humourous as most of these people do not understand what terms such as Nazi and fascist(for example) actually mean, they seem to be blanket term for ‘bad people and things’ or indeed for people who just disagree with their own point of view. Luckily according to Godwins rule if any of the above terms are used in the wrong context then the argument is lost by that party and if you don’t agree, then you are probably a fascist too.
As a postscript the title makes it seem like i’m railing against the government(indeed any government) but i am not bemoaning the stat of anyones politics,although certain systems of late need to be shaken up… it was meant to be fascination but with the ’st’ inserted it takes on a new meaning. Words are fun!
Aha! its is always great to see a new post on your blog. Perhaps periodically you should group a few of your recent Facebook book reviews into a post? This would add more content to your blog and give me one less reason to visit that place.
And also I liked your point and the Godwin’s law thing, Amazon reviewers are complete Nazis.
I have heard people refer to our new president (US) as “nazi,” even though his stances are socialist at most. Quite funny really, how people confuse the two. And then once you throw in “communist,” you really get a mixed pie!
I want to eat pie now!
By the way, I thought the title was pretty ingenious.