The Banter

I was amused by the comments of my correspondent ‘Tocasaid’ on my recent post about Gaelic and Scots.

Some of his/her comments are reasoned and a valid counter argument to my own sometimes tongue in cheek rants on the subject.

However he/she falls into two particular traps which will be familiar to anyone who has ever stumbled across an online discussion.

Mike Godwin

The first is Godwin’s Law. is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990 that has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 100%. In other words, Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.

Now to be fair about this, Tocasaid didn’t compare me to Hitler, but instead, ad hominem, to Colonel Gaddafi. Apparently having a view on the validity of road sign and document translation in a democracy is something akin to ruling a country by dictatorship for 42 years.

And in all this time I never knew Gaddafi had a kilt! I thought that was Idi Amin!

Tocasaid also fell into the “I pay my taxes, I want my rights” trap.

This is the notion that no matter what one’s beliefs or habits, by paying some cash to the exchequer, one’s every whim is therefore to be indulged.

Anyhoo, it’s all banter when all’s said and done.

Do readers have a preference to which dictator they’d like to be compared to?

And as taxpayers, which right or freedom do you think you should be entitled to?