By 1990, the early years of the internet, Mike Godwin promulgated Godwin's Law, the idea that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1. At the time a corollary of Godwin's Law was that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever debate is in progress.

Fast forward another 30 years, and I feel that we have reached a phase on online discussion where the comparison with Nazis or Adolf Hitler is no longer the end of a debate; it is the starting point. If a public figure would say that he/she was in favor of colorblind racial equality, he/she would immediately be called a racist. If he made a comment about a woman being sexy, he would immediately be equated with a rapist. Saying that men and women are different makes you sexist. Saying that there is a difference between a trans woman and a biological woman makes you transphobic, and you will even be accused of promoting violence against trans people. And even left-of-center moderates are Nazis these days. On the other side of the political spectrum, the extreme right doesn't even bother with hyperbole anymore: If you are left-of-center, you are a child peddler, in a complete non sequitur.

The problem is that the corollary still applies, hyperbole ends the debate. And the absence of any political debate makes the alternative of political violence more likely. Especially in the USA, where political violence as a result of a presidential election already happened last time, the probability of political violence as a result of the next presidential election, regardless who wins, is very high. It isn't just the Republicans with their Big Lie that prepare for non-acceptance of the result, the Democrats also prepare by talking about gerrymandering and the difference between electoral college and the popular vote. It will be almost impossible to hold a presidential election in the USA in the future where there will not be a sizable chunk of the population who will believe the election was stolen.

Unlike the American Civil War of the 1860's, there is no clear geographical separation between the two sides this time. 34% of Californians voted for Trump, 46% of Texans voted for Biden. Whatever you believe about "blue states" and "red states" is wrong. Each state has red, rural counties, and blue, urban ones. The number of red, rural counties is higher than the number of blue, urban ones, but the population in the urban counties is obviously higher. But even at that level, there are Republicans in big cities, and Democrats in the countryside. Political violence in the future will not look like Gettysburg, it will look like Kenosha. As a result, there is not even a chance of political violence producing a winner, like the Civil War did. We will all just be losers. Unless we somehow manage to talk to each other again.