[WikiEN-l] Neo-nazis to attack wikipedia

Mon Feb 7 00:28:08 UTC 2005

David Gerard wrote:

>While it would be theoretically nice from the angle of NPOV to find a
>neo-Nazi who could research and argue worth a damn, in practice being one
>seems to require being hard of thinking, and they are demonstrably unable
>to hold a coherent point in open debate on the Internet, hence retreating
>to boards like Stormfront, where they self-aggrandise to their hearts'
>content. A swarm of Vogels would be annoying but nothing beyond what we
>routinely deal with on a regular basis.  I predict the very hardest part
>will be getting checkable references out of them and getting them to
>actually accept that 2+2=4 when presented with quality references from
>those who don't agree with them.
>  
>
I don't think this is a particularly unique trait of neo-Nazis though, 
merely something common to many activist groups.  Heck, I'm a member of 
several environmentalist organizations, and I'd argue that the 
description above applies to a large proportion of environmental 
activists, and I'd similarly have low hopes for a cadre of them 
successfully making NPOV edits to Wikipedia.  The circumcision-related 
articles have tended to be a mess from both sides as well, including 
recruitment of activists from off-wikipedia mailing lists.

-Mark