User:Mrtapeguy/sandbox

Berlin's Law is an argument made by Craig Berlin in 2012 that states: "As an online political discussion grows longer, the probability of a conservative or Republican's views being attributed to watching Fox News increases."

In other words, Berlin observed that, given enough time, in any online political discussion, someone with an opposing viewpoint, presumably a liberal or Democrat, inevitably attributes differing opinion to originating from Fox News.

The rule does not make any statement about whether any particular reference or attribution might be appropriate, but only asserts that the likelihood of such an assertion increases as the discussion progresses, irrespective of whether it is appropriate or not.

There are many corollaries to Berlin's law on both sides of the political spectrum. The political left my also attribute conservative thought to popular radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh or generic "right-wing talking points." The right tends to reference "left-wing talking points" and "drinking Kool-Aid" although technically, the Kool-Aid reference could be applied to any belief system.

Berlin's law especially applies to attributions which assert that conservative political opinion could not exist without Fox News and ignores other sources of conservative opinion not the least of which is independent thought. It also ignores the fact that conservative opinion and the Republican party existed long before Fox News.