Wikipedia’s Web 2.0 Totalitarian Universe

Kurt Nimmo
TruthNews
December 7, 2007

Responding to a New York Times Magazine article where Wikipedia founder Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales declared some “people are idiots and shouldn’t be writing,” so long as Wikipedia and its fawnish minions make the call, Cade Metz, writing for the Register, states the obvious: “Despite its popular reputation as a Web 2.0 wonderland, Wikipedia is not a democracy. But the totalitarian attitudes of the site’s ruling clique go much further than Jimbo cares to acknowledge.”

Metz writes:

In early September, the Wikipedia inner circle banned edits from 1,000 homes and one massive online retailer in an attempt to suppress the voice of one man.

His name is Judd Bagley, and when the ban came down, he hadn’t edited Wikipedia in over a year. He was merely writing about the site, from his own domain. The Wikipedia elite blacklisted Judd Bagley because he accused them of using their powers to hijack reality.

Mr. Bagley may have rubbed tin horn dictator Wales wrong and thus his unceremonious detour to the Wikipedia memory hole. However, Wikipedia is notorious for scrubbing other entries, and not simply because a precious ego or two gets chaffed. Political correctness figures into the equation as well.

As Paul Joseph Watson noted in September, “websites such as MySpace, Wikipedia and Digg pose as virtuous online information democracies yet are bossed by bias censors and patrolled by organized armies of trolls whose sole purpose is to discredit and delete controversial information by launching unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks on the credibility of its source or its very right to be discussed (Wikipedia trolls deleted a list of Republican sex scandals, among a host of other manifestly provable controversies).”

In addition, as Watson notes, the sites are crawling with government disinfo agents:

They are also wide open to abuse from nefarious government agencies and corporations seeking to “memory hole” sensitive information from the web, as was documented by the WikiScanner scandal. In this climate, a media watchdog like Prison Planet should be welcomed, not shunned, censored and blocked off by MySpace filtering software.

Indeed, “memory hole” is an apt characterization, for Wikipedia, not unlike Winston Smith in Orwell’s famous dystopian novel 1984, shuffles the politically inconvenient to the incinerator, not one of roaring flames but rather bytes and bits overwritten on its massive database.

As documented by the UK Independent last August, Wikipedia allows “thousands of self-serving edits” and deletions. “Some of the guilty parties identified by [Virgil Griffith’s Wikiscanner project]” include the British “Labor Party, the CIA, Republican Party and the Church of Scientology,” among others, including ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, Diebold, Boeing, the FBI, the Israeli government, the National Rifle Association, and even the Discovery Channel.

In addition to corporate and governmental monkey wrenching, Wikipedia has a hand in making sure the entries on its site reflect reality as viewed by Wales and the “community.” For instance, last July, Jimbo admitted as much during a Q & A at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “The audience at the Commonwealth Club were far more interested in the politics of Wikipedia rather than the inner workings of search engines. How accurate are Wikipedia’s posts? How does Wikipedia plan to approach censorship in China? How does Wikipedia intend to maintain neutrality of information in the face of the 2008 elections? How do you deal with paid PR firms and copyright issues?” writes Lorna Li for bub.blicio.us.

Jimbo’s answers were pretty much what you’d expect from a founder of a behemoth Wiki empire. At the end of the day, it all goes back to trust in the all-powerful Community — its ability to police itself, identify and eliminate pirated content, regulate neutrality and maintain accuracy of information.

Ms. Li should have added: at the end of the day, it also includes the political bias of the controllers, who they are inclined to please, or even who they take orders from, not that there is sufficient evidence Wales and Wikipedia are a wholly owned government intelligence op.

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  1. […] Kurt Nimmo TRUTHNEWS […]

  2. Against the grain on December 7th, 2007

    Crazy Idea Alert!!

    If you think wikipedia is evil…never use it again.

  3. Rob on December 8th, 2007

    Deleting contreversial topics is their way of maintaining their integrity. However to someone with the knowledge of the deletions, it destroys their integrity. It’s a fine balance wikipedia must meet. As a free for all would probebly desroy the website all together, the website must have some sort of secrity. These are the “trolls” you speak of. All you can do is get as many people you know to “flood” the wiki boards long enough and the “trolls” will stand aside and let you controll the information. It really is a democracy, the security is very flimsy to a dedicated and organised opponent.

  4. S. Wolf Britain on December 8th, 2007

    “….(N)ot that there is sufficient evidence Wales and Wikipedia are a wholly owned government intelligence op….”

    ….YET!!….

    But chances are it is, just like most ostensible “democracy” websites. Or they very soon will be, because the CIA and other government agencies are not going to allow democracy and freedom for much longer, either on the net or anyplace else, in “the land of (slaves), and the home of the (cowards)”, in the “United States of (Authoritarianism/Autocracy)”, and in the “one-world, one-(false/counterfeit/so-called-”Christian”)-religion government”.

    So websites that now still have some “freedom”, like Care2.com, etc., are going to more and more control and censor freedom of speech, religion and expression, as they are doing to a certain extend already. “Corporate-Neo-Lib-Communist-Theocratic-Fascist”, militarized police states cannot have free speech, religion and expression. As in Orwell’s “1984″, they shut them ALL down; and that is what they are doing right now in the U.S., shutting them all down. And very soon they will usher in nationwide and worldwide their version of “Christianity” that will control every aspect of life, including every aspect of government, and will require on pain of death that ALL PEOPLE, citizens and non-citizens alike, worship it. They will then not allow ANYONE to worship on not worship as they see fit. Freedom of Belief will be completely dead.

    And it will all appear to be a very good thing: “Uniting” all of the disparate belief systems under one banner, and everyone “coming together”. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But, even with all of its appearances of “freedom”, it will NOT be True Freedom, AT ALL!! So, People, please don’t be fooled by ANY of it, don’t surrender to ANY of it, and don’t bow down to ANY of the totalitarian “one-world-communist-fascist”, theocratic police, prison and enslavement state in the guise of “unity”, “love” and doing away with all “disharmony”, etc.!! It will ALL be NOTHING BUT a “wonderful-APPEARING” COUNTERFEIT (FALSE COPY WITH A MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND COMPLETELY EVIL FALSEHOODS) OF THE ONLY TRUE, RIGHT WAY, ONLY THE TRUE JESUS THE CHRIST, NOT the devil in His guise of the false “Christian” one-world religion that is already taking over the world!! Don’t be fooled!! You’ve been warned!!

    http://www.gcnlive.com/the_bible_says.htm

  5. Support this story on Stirrdup on December 9th, 2007

    Wikipedia, Web 2.0, and the Totalitarian Tip Toe

    This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot.

  6. William Mayhue on December 10th, 2007

    Sounds like the following:

    “If This Goes On—”
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Jump to: navigation, search
    “”If This Goes On—”" Author Robert A. Heinlein
    Country United States
    Language English
    Genre(s) Science fiction short story
    Published in Astounding Science-Fiction
    Publication type Periodical
    Media type Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
    Publication date 1940

    “If This Goes On—” is a science fiction short novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first serialized in 1940 in Astounding Science-Fiction and revised and expanded for inclusion in the 1953 collection Revolt in 2100. One of his Future History series, it recounts a future theocratic American society, ruled by the latest in a series of “Prophets.” The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later). Scudder was previously mentioned in passing in stories such as Logic of Empire and later on in Heinlein’s final novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset. He is also mentioned in Heinlein’s first, long-unpublished novel, For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs.

    The novel deals with a rebellion, organized by a secret society called The Cabal, that leads to the eventual re-establishment of democracy. One of the major strengths of the novel is that it is less about action-adventure and derring-do, and more about how the rebellion is organized; Heinlein makes military organization and logistics as fascinating as a swordfight or space battle. The Cabal uses terminology associated with Freemasonry, and there are hints that the masons are actually one of the groups involved in the loosely organized revolt against the government. (Heinlein himself was not a Mason,[1] but had considered joining the Masons as a young man.[2])

    For the most part, while set in Heinlein’s Future History, the story is self-contained and has little effect on other works in the series. However, it is noted in Methuselah’s Children that, during the time of this story, the secret of the Howard Families was held close (being a prize that was beyond the power of the prophet to confiscate), and also that the Cabal assisted in helping the Howards maintain their masquerade.

    The story also depicts the start of the negotiations which would lead to the Covenant, the somewhat idealized basis for government depicted in “Coventry”, “Misfit” and in Methuselah’s Children.

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