[WikiEN-l] Nazi userboxes

Thu Nov 30 23:09:44 UTC 2006

On 11/30/06, Rob <gamaliel8 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 11/30/06, Jim Schuler <jim62sch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > That's utter nonsense.  Would you delete a page and ban the user who has
> a
> > Communist userbox?  Yes or no?  Communists were responsible for far more
> > deaths than the Nazis (hell, Hitler was an amateur compared to Uncle Joe
> and
> > the Beloved Chairman Mao), and we (the Western nations) were allied with
> a
> > genocidal paranoid butcher during WWII in order to defeat another
> genocidal
> > paranoid butcher.
> >
> > Picking and choosing what is "acceptable" is, to me, often an example of
> > fear and ignorance.
>
> "Fear and ignorance"?  Seriously, let's tone down the rhetoric here,
> please.  How is saying that Wikipedia has no obligation to be a Nazi
> soapbox motivated by "fear and ignorance"?  How is saying that
> Wikipedia should have rules of conduct that dictate that certain
> behaviors are outrageous, rules of conduct which are entirely similar
> to rules used in many, many other private spheres, motivated by "fear
> and ignorance"?

Some day I'll remember not to post philosophical points here.  I simply
don't have the time to explain how fear and ignorance are the catalyst
for censorship.

Also, the inferrences you draw are not supported by what I wrote.

Finally, Wiki has no obligation to be a soapbox for anything, not just those
things people find offensive.