Thursday, January 25, 2007

Wolf's Law

I'm planning a post or two in the next few days about the Mehadrin Bus Lines in Israel. However, before I do that, I would like to make the following point:

I'm sure that many of us have heard of Godwin's Law. Technically , Godwin's Law is really a statement of probability -- that the longer an online discussion goes on, the more likely it is that someone is going to compare someone or something to Hitler or the Nazis.

In practice, however, Godwin's Law has been applied as that the first person to make such an analogy has automatically lost the debate.

Increasingly, on blogs, bulletin boards and other interactive Internet media, many people have taken to comparing the extreme right-wing of Orthodox Judaism (especially in Israel) "the Taliban." While there may be, in fact, certain commonalities between the Taliban and Israel, I think we can all agree that the most ardent Chareidi is not planning to hijack planes and plow them into buildings, nor engage in the absolute worst of the Taliban's tactics.

Therefore, I'm proposing Wolf's Law: Criticism of the Chareidi community in Israel is fair game - but the person who compares them to the Taliban automatically loses the debate.

The Wolf

15 comments:

LT said...

I'm totally down with Wolf's Law. Let's spread the word.


Hmmm... only downside is now I'll need to think of some other repressive regime to compare Charedim with...


((kidding))

Anonymous said...

i think there is a difference between taliban and terrorists you describe.

but if it makes you happy, ill compare charedim to wahabis of saudi arabia.

Orthoprax said...

Do you suppose this conflicts with Ahmed's Law which says that the first person to compare the Taliban to the Chareidis loses the debate?

Anonymous said...

I hear Asia News is issuing a memo to all its journalists, asking to please comply with the newly enacted Wolf's Law:

From a recent headline: "Women reject Taliban-like rules on bus"

See more here: http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8334&size=A

Anonymous said...

Only a Taliban-like blog would cut out free speech and prevent comments from comparing others to the Taliban. :)

BrooklynWolf said...

LOL, Anon. That's a good one.

However, I didn't say that I'd ban anyone who compares Chareidim to the Taliban or delete their comments - just that IMHO, in doing so, they've lost the argument.

The Wolf

Anonymous said...

I think we can all agree that the most ardent Chareidi is not planning to hijack planes and plow them into buildings, nor engage in the absolute worst of the Taliban's tactics.

...yet. Do you think the Taliban started out where they ended up? Or did they start with things like this?

Anonymous said...

could we agree that anyone who ends up calling the other side Amalek lost the debate?

Warren Burstein said...

I vote no. I also disagree with the "in practice" version of the original law.

Jacob Da Jew said...

So what should we compare them to?

BTW,I emailed you some stuff but you didnt respond...Is your email working,Wolf?

Jewboy said...

Forget that, some blogs, notably the famed Emes Ve'Emunah, compare some charedi tactics to those of Nazis. This practice is hurtful to all our people and should be stopped immediately.

Holy Hyrax said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Holy Hyrax said...

ppsshttt. Why don't you just rip our spleens out instead Wolf!

Anonymous said...

::Homer simpson voice:: mmmmmm....evicerated spleens.....

Rebeljew said...

What about "heretic"?