I started out laughing heartily at this…
…and then grew quite a bit more somber. Wired Magazine has started a “watchdog” page that shows who’s been editing Wikipedia entries to suit their own agendas. Before you go there, though, I strongly recommend getting a stiff drink, sitting down, and calming the beef min. I was laughing long and hard at a few of them, and then the smile faded from my face as I faced yet another sobering reminder that political discourse in this country is dead. Okay, if it’s not dead, it’s barely twitching and rasping Pee-Wee Herman’s “I know you are, but what am I?” line over and over again in a ghastly, barely-audible back-of-the-throat rattle. The Wired page reveals no angels: Democrats are just as guilty of cowardly, pin-“kick me”-signs-on-someone’s-back tactics as Republicans. And then you get into corporate smear jobs and whitewashes that are just as disturbing. By the time I see yet another instance of the Church of Scientology editing its own entries, it’s not even startling anymore. Just coldly numbing.
Now, I’m aware that one edit coming from a place that may have hundreds of people in the building doesn’t mean the whole building participated. But that doesn’t change the “disturbing” factor significantly for me. Those whose interests are threatened by the public being able to distribute information are trying to find the closest things that the internet has to a “hub” for that information, and they’re trying to bend it to their own will. This points out a great weakness in the whole “social media” movement. I hope there will always be at least some people who have enough time to take on the thankless task of fighting for the integrity of the user-content-driven side of the web.
In the meantime, marvel at what government officials are doing with their on-the-clock time, and what those who would have that power are doing with theirs in the meantime. This kind of stuff makes me lean a little more libertarian every day.… Read more
