Eighteen years ago, I was the managing editor of The Daily Texan, and Mike Godwin was the editor of the University of Texas student daily. We did not get along well -- something having to do with me trying to lead a mutiny, and, oh, wasn't college full of wacky hijinks like that? Mike would go on to become the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, around the time he coughed up this gem:
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
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Which is so true. Today, I edit a blog -- and today, Mike Godwin is general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, the goal of which is to bring "a free and accurate encyclopedia to every single person on the planet," fair enough. And today, Mike is the subject of a piece in The New York Times, in which Mike says you'd better get used to getting smeared on the Interwebs. C'mon -- it ain't that bad. It's ... fun, almost. And, yeah, it hurts. But, says Mike, "if democracy were comfortable, everybody would have it.” We'd get along swimmingly now. --Robert Wilonsky
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