Godwin’s Law, short for Godwin’s law of Nazi analogies, is an Internet term suggesting that the longer an online discussion grows, the greater probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler pops up. The longer the discussion, the more likely a Nazi comparison becomes. It was coined in 1990 by attorney and author Mike Godwin.
On Tuesday night, President of ABC News Kim Godwin suspended The View host Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks over her statement in Monday’s episode of the show: “Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.” She then added: “You’re missing the point … let’s talk about it for what it really is. It’s about how people treat each other. It’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Jews … everybody eats each other.”
Goldberg apologized on the same day for her comment, which, I guess, attempted to weave together the lessons of the Holocaust with the prejudices of the Woke movement. Having seen the writing on the wall with Jewish groups everywhere reacting angrily to her brand of historical dynamics, she tweeted: “On today’s show I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people, who they deemed to be an inferior race’. I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waver. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”
On Tuesday, Goldberg opened The View with another heartfelt apology, possibly because the writing on the wall was getting more menacing, and in a bigger font: “Yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night but I want you to hear it from me directly. I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. I understand why now, and for that, I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful, and it helped me understand some different things.”
It wasn’t enough. President Godwin issued a statement Tuesday night, saying, “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family, and communities.”
Newsweek opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon suggested on Hill TV on Tuesday that Whoopi Goldberg had fallen into the obvious logical trap of the Woke worldview that depicts history as a struggle of “white supremacy versus people of color.”
“Her apology was obviously sincere, she obviously didn’t mean anything by it, but I think the world view that led to such a grievous, disgusting error about what happened during the Holocaust is endemic in certain places on the left,” Ungar-Sargon said.
