[WikiEN-l] Blocking Nazis is not about blocking for mere insults

Sun Feb 20 17:55:22 UTC 2005

Someone wrote "You want TBSDY desysopped because he blocked
SS-88 after he said this:"

> "You consider the right side of the fence to be on the
side of the
> haters. You call us stupid, but you should know that we
have a log of
> your hatred and abuse of "power" against one of our
comrades. THAT WAS
> STUPID! Your actions have been documented and have, so
far, been
> circulated to thousands of aryans who do not look kindly
on your type
> of hatred. You know what happens to people who ignore
history......
> 88 !!"

>> I refer you to the blocking policy:
>> "Blocks may be imposed in instances where threats have
been made or
>> actions performed (including actions outside the
Wikipedia site)
>> which expose other Wikipedia editors to political,
religious or other
>> persecution by government, their employer or any others.
In such
>> a case a ban for a period of time may be applied
immediately by any
>> sysop upon discovery. "

Teresa responded, very rationaly:

> This looks like a pretty straightforward case to me

It also sounds straightforward to me.  If we allow violent
hatespeech by Nazis, white supremacists, Nation of Islam
black supremacists, "Heil Hitler" comments, and the like on
Wikipedia, we will instantly become a joke.

The use of Wikipedia would then rightly be banned by all
high schools, and by most colleges.  Professional scholars
and academics will be forced to see Wikipedia not as an
encyclopedia, but rather as some sort of sick experiment in
using the phrase "free speech" as an excuse to shove the
most violent hate and lies, and as a forum where
dispassionate and rational contributors are scared off.

Many present and potential black contributors will
*certainly* be driven away if allow them to be the victims
of such abuse and persecution. The same is true for many
present and potential Jewish, Gay, and other contributors. 
The project will simply cease to exist as it presently
does.

Already I have been pursued by one many who openly
identified himself as a Nazi (John Hoode, aka Mr. Natural
Health) and was threatened by Craig, Entmoots of Trolls,
who promised to send me identity to fundamentalist Islamist
groups, who at the time (and now) were mass murdering Jews
and many others.  Now we have a number of individuals with
similar beliefs attacking non-"Aryans", saying "88" (code
for "Heil Hitler", and abusing and driving away decent
contributors.

Any rational person should see this as the death of
Wikipedia, and most of our Sysops rightly ban such actions.
 So I was hurt and stunned when Zero 0000 _again_ defended
Nazi hatespeech and harassment, and called for its
acceptance on Wikipedia. 

Zero 0000 writes:
> I must be missing something. How do these (highly
offensive)
> remarks expose this sysop to "political, religious or
other
> persecution by government, their employer or any others"?

These attacks in of themselves are persecution and
harassment.  Maybe you don't know what it is like to be a
black person, a gay person, or a Jew, but many of us do. 
Being cyver-followed around by hatemongers who scream "Heil
Hitler" and who abuse us, and who advocate violence, is by
the very definition of the word "persecution".  How can
people not recognize this?

> Unless the sysop lives in a state with a Nazi government,
it 
> is clear to me that there is no such exposure.

Is this an ironic joke, or are you writing as if such
hatespeech does not exist?  Do you have any idea how many
Jews, gays and blacks are beaten each year by the very
people who engage in such harassment and hatespeech?  In my
own town in the USA a Jewish synagogue was burned less than
four years ago by people spewing this hatespeech.  In my
own school we have had Jews taunted and swastikas drawn on
the walls and posters.  We also have had death threats made
against blacks by certain white groups...and these threats
led to serious beatings of black students less than three
months ago.

Free speech about killing Jews always leads to killing
Jews. The same is true about speech towards killing
"niggers" or "queers".  Have we learned nothing from the
20th century?

I find Zero's acceptance of this violent, explicitly Nazi
hatespeech to be a clear danger to Wikipedia.  We can be an
encyclopedia where hatemongers are not welcome, working to
create a peer-reviewed NPOV open-source encyclopedia.  Or
we can allow those people Zero continually defends to
destroy our own work, and make us a laughing stock in the
eyes of the rest of the world.

The choice is clear.

Robert (RK)

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