I won't even mention who Godwin's law refers to, but I'd like to point out that they were alive at some point. By the same token, shit-hits-fan scenarios are awful and usually warnings are false alarms, but they happen. I don't think that doesn't mean we can't talk about them without getting into a flame war. I think HN is civilized enough to address these topics once in a while and come up with an interesting discussion.